Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 17-11-2017
A report by NGO Save the Children on the Myanmar crisis has detailed harrowing testimonies of the atrocities committed against women and children.
The report, ‘Horrors I will never forget’, paints a disturbing picture of the systematic violence, rape and forced evictions faced by many of the 600,000 Rohingya who arrived in Bangladesh since August 25 this year, almost 60 percent of whom are children.
The release of the report comes ahead of a meeting of Foreign Ministers from Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw on Monday and Tuesday.
Save the Children has urged Foreign Ministers at the meeting to take a stand on the Rohingya crisis and unequivocally condemn the violence that has been reported over the last months.
Save the Children chief executive and former Prime Minister of Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who recently visited Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh says every account painted another picture of horror.
“Almost every child we’ve spoken to has seen and experienced things that no child ever should. They have told us of massacres, multiple rapes and seeing family members burnt alive. With more than half of all refugees under the age of 18, this is a children’s emergency.”
Thorning-Schmidt says the plight of the Rohingya people must be front and centre of the talks in Naypyidaw and that Nations from around the world must stand together and leverage their diplomatic influence with Myanmar.
“We want to see an immediate end to the violence, for perpetrators of this horror to be brought to justice and for unhindered humanitarian access to be allowed in northern Rakhine State.”
Thorning-Schmidt reiterated that the shattered lives of children must be rebuilt saying that many children she spoke to were deeply distressed and therefore required necessary vital care and support to recover from their ordeal.
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