UN chief urges Myanmar to address Rohingyas’ citizenship issue

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that stability in Myanmar’s Rakhine state cannot be achieved unless the government addresses the issue of citizenship for Rohingya Muslims minority.

“Long-term stability in Rakhine will remain unattainable without comprehensively addressing the issue of status and citizenship of the Muslim populations — particularly the plight of those who self-identify and are known by many as Rohingyas,” Ban told a meeting of a group of countries called “the Partnership Group on Myanmar” in New York on Friday.

The Partnership Group on Myanmar is a reconfiguration of the Group of Friends of Myanmar, which itself consisted of over 10 regional countries and blocs, that broadens the scope of the partnership between Myanmar and the UN.

“Myanmar’s top leaders must send a unified message against incitement of hatred and promote harmony and social cohesion,” the UN chief added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ban referred to Myanmar’s general elections, slated to be held by year’s end, and described them as “an important milestone” for the Southeast Asian country.

Myanmar officials categorize most of the 1.3 million of Rohingyas as Bengalis, implying they are illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Reports say hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas in Myanmar are suffering from a severe shortage of food and drinking water. Humanitarian aid deliveries have slowed down in Rakhine, where many Rohingyas live, due to an escalation of violence.

The UN recognizes Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims as one of the world’s most persecuted communities.

Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar have been persecuted and faced torture, neglect, and repression since the country’s independence in 1948.

The Myanmar government has been repeatedly criticized by human rights groups for failing to protect the Rohingya Muslims.

MSM/AS/MHB

Algerian minister: France will admit to its crimes in Algeria sooner or later

France will recognise its colonial crimes against the Algerian people “today or tomorrow”, the Anadolu Agency reported a senior minister saying.

Commenting on remarks by French President Francois Hollande who has recently denied that his country committed genocide in Algeria during the colonial period between 1830 and 1962, Minister of War Veterans Tayeb Zaitoni told reporters: “If France does not recognise its crimes in Algeria today, it will do tomorrow.”

“We will carry the message of our victims from one generation to another and we’re proud of our ancestors,” Zaitouni added.

On Tuesday, France’s Canal+ channel broadcasted a video in which Hollande tells a French student of Algerian origin: “It was not genocide in Algeria but a war which we recognise.”

The student later interrupts the French president saying: “No, but it was genocide, you killed Algerians and tortured them.” Hollande replied: “No, we did not want a genocide and did not want to kill the Algerians. Indeed it was a very painful war and yes mass graves are being discovered till this day and we must recognise this, but definitely not genocide, because we did not want to kill all the people.”

Since its independence from France in 1962, the Algerian authorities, political parties and organisations of war veterans and their families have been demanding Paris issue a formal apology for the crimes it committed against Algerians during the colonial period and to compensate the victims’ families. However, the French authorities stress that they should start looking to the future.

French Deputy Defence Minister for Veterans and Memory, Jean-Marc Todeschini visited Algeria on Sunday to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre in Setif, 300 kilometres east of Algiers.

Zaitouni described the visit as a “good but insufficient step”.

Algerian authorities say 1.5 million people were killed during the armed liberation revolution between 1954 and 1962 along with hundreds of thousands who were injured and displaced