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Myanmar's commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing on Thursday claimed the media has "exaggerated" the number of Rohingya refugees fleeing an army crackdown.
Over 500,000 Rohingya are thought to have left Myanmar's western Rakhine State since August 25, when the military launched a campaign against militants from the Muslim minority. The UN on Wednesday accused Myanmar of trying to purge its entire Rohingya population.
Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan (L) met with Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon, Myanmar, on September 5, 2016. /Xinhua Photo
The UN Security Council will hold an informal meeting on Friday to hear former chief Kofi Annan provide details of a report on the plight of Rohingya Muslims. France and Britain requested the meeting with Annan as the council weighs its next steps to confront the crisis.
‘Exaggeration’
In a Facebook post on Thursday, army chief Min Aung Hlaing described Myanmar’s military response as proportionate and played down the scale of the Rohingya exodus.
It is an "exaggeration to say that the number of Bengalis fleeing to Bangladesh is very large," the post quoted him as saying, using a pejorative term for the Rohingya that classifies them as illegal immigrants. He accused the media of "instigation and propaganda."
The new UN report described the army-led crackdown as "well-organised, coordinated and systematic, with the intent of not only driving the population out of Myanmar but preventing them from returning to their homes."
Rohingya refugees queue to receive humanitarian aid at the Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on October 11, 2017. /Reuters Photo
Half of Myanmar's Rohingya have left over the last seven weeks, fleeing incinerated villages to join what has become the world's largest refugee camp in neighboring Bangladesh.
The humanitarian needs of the refugees who have made it to Bangladesh are immense with limited food, shelter and the threat a disease outbreak deepening by the day.
But Min Aung Hlaing insisted the Rohingya are returning to their motherland. "The native place of Bengalis is really Bengal," he said. "They might have fled to the other country with the same language, race and culture as theirs by assuming that they would be safer there."
UN's Myanmar official recalled
The UN’s top official in Myanmar, Renata Lok-Dessallien, will leave her post at the end of October.
Renata Lok-Dessallien. /UNDP Photo
Lok-Dessallien has faced criticism for her response to the Rohingya crisis, but in a statement on Wednesday the UN said she would be transferred as part of a planned "succession process."
Meanwhile, the UN's top political affairs official, Jeffrey Feltman, will travel to Myanmar on Friday for four days of talks on the crisis.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an end to the military campaign, access for aid groups to reach the burned-out villages in Rakhine State and measures to allow the safe return of the Rohyinga.
(AFP)
