UNITED NATIONS — Rohingya Muslims made an emotional appeal to world leaders at the United Nations, demanding urgent action to prevent further mass killings in Myanmar and to secure their right to live freely in their ancestral homeland.
The first-ever UN high-level meeting on the plight of the ethnic minority, held in the General Assembly Hall this week, underscored both the urgency of the crisis and the paralysis of the international community.
“A historic but overdue moment”
Wai Wai Nu, founder and executive director of the Women’s Peace Network-Myanmar, told ministers and ambassadors from UN member states that the occasion marked a turning point long delayed.
“This is a historic occasion for Myanmar, but this is long overdue,” she said, noting that despite determinations of genocide, no concrete international measures had been taken to end decades of persecution. “That cycle must end today,” she insisted.
For generations, the Rohingya have faced systemic discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, denied citizenship since 1982 and branded “Bengalis” despite deep ancestral roots in Rakhine state.
From mass exodus to genocide claims
The most brutal phase came in August 2017, when military “clearance operations” in response to attacks by a Rohingya insurgent group forced at least 740,000 people across the border into Bangladesh. Villages were torched, women raped, and entire communities slaughtered in what the UN and global human rights groups later called ethnic cleansing and genocide.
The United States formally declared in 2022 that Myanmar’s military had committed crimes against humanity and genocide against the Rohingya, but survivors say accountability remains absent.
A worsening landscape after the 2021 coup
Myanmar has been locked in escalating conflict since the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021. The coup sparked a wave of nationwide resistance and civil war involving pro-democracy fighters and long-marginalized ethnic armed groups. In western Rakhine, tens of thousands of Rohingya remain confined to squalid camps, enduring ongoing restrictions, forced labor, and arbitrary arrests.
UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi, who recently toured the region, warned that Bangladesh is now sheltering nearly 1.2 million Rohingya refugees. Renewed fighting between Myanmar’s army and the powerful Arakan Army in 2024 has displaced another 150,000 Rohingya, worsening an already desperate humanitarian crisis.
“The Rohingya still face discrimination, burning of villages, denial of freedom of movement, exclusion from jobs, and restricted access to schools and hospitals,” Grandi said. “Their lives are defined every day by racism and fear.”
No credible path to peace
Julie Bishop, the UN special envoy for Myanmar, noted that prospects for peace remain dim. With no agreed ceasefire, no pathway to dialogue, and elections planned under military control, Myanmar’s political crisis shows little sign of resolution.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk warned that the polls scheduled for December will be neither credible nor inclusive, excluding Rohingya and disqualifying Rakhine ethnic parties.
Rohingya voices demand protection
Addressing the assembly, Rohingya activist Rofik Huson of the Arakan Youth Peace Network declared that despite decades of persecution, the Rohingya’s “deepest wish” remains to live peacefully in their homeland. He called for the creation of a UN-supervised safe zone in northern Rakhine along the Bangladesh border.
Maung Sawyeddollah of the Rohingya Student Network added that without international protection and recognition of self-determination, peace would remain elusive. “The UN must mobilize resources to empower the Rohingya,” he said, his voice breaking with emotion.
“Just a starting point”
The session closed with remarks from UN General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock, who emphasized that “today is just a starting point, we have to do more.” She pledged a follow-up process focused on concrete action.
For the Rohingya, long ignored in the halls of power, the meeting offered hope but also underscored frustration at international inertia. Whether the pledges will translate into real protection and political change remains uncertain, but the urgency of their demand was clear: end the cycle of persecution, restore their rights, and prevent a genocide from continuing in plain sight.
