The UN Security Council will hold a videoconference on Burma on Thursday to discuss the escalation of violence in Rakhine State and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, we learned on Monday from diplomatic sources. This closed meeting was requested by the United Kingdom. An intervention by the UN envoy for Burma, the Swiss Christine Schraner Burgener, is planned.
In late April, a driver from the World Health Organization (WHO), transporting coronavirus test samples, was killed in an attack in Rakhine state (west), a Burmese region prone to violence between rebel and military groups. In condemning the attack, the UN had asked for a full, transparent investigation, and that the perpetrators be brought to justice.
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The violence is occurring against the backdrop of the international community's call for a ceasefire and the protection of displaced civilians in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The last Security Council meeting on Burma dates back to February. China, Burma's support and regularly opposed to UN action for this country, had then prevented the adoption of a joint declaration by the 15 members of the Council.
Since August 2017, around 740,000 Rohingyas have taken refuge in Bangladesh to flee the atrocities of Burmese soldiers and Buddhist militias, described as "genocide" by UN investigators. The exact number of Rohingyas killed in the violence is not known, but NGOs estimate it to be several thousand.
