US calls on Myanmar to stop violence, displacement of Rohingya

The White House in a statement said it called on US authorities to stop the violence in Myanmar and end displacement of civilians.

The White House said on Monday the violent displacement of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar showed the country’s security forces were not protecting civilians.

This photo taken on September 5 shows Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar arriving at a new camp in Unchiprang near the Bangladeshi border town of Teknaf. (AFP Photo)

“We call on Burmese security authorities to respect the rule of law, stop the violence, and end the displacement of civilians from all communities,” the White House said in a statement.

Meanwhile, The United Nations’ top human rights official has accused Myanmar of carrying out “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” against Rohingya Muslims, hundreds of thousands of whom have crossed into Bangladesh since late August to escape a military crackdown.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, UN high commissioner for human rights, said the military’s “brutal” security campaign was in clear violation of international law, and cited what he called refugees’ consistent accounts of widespread extrajudicial killings, rape and other atrocities.