Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has condemned Myanmar’s “brutal crimes” against Rohingya Muslims.
The Iranian president on Wednesday calling on the Southeast Asian country’s leaders to immediately end the “inconceivable ethnic cleansing” of the religious minority.
“We are all aware of the plight of Rohingya Muslims,” the Iranian president told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “Tens of thousands—nearly 100,000—people are either displaced or killed; their corpses are set on fire and so are their homes.”
“We call on the Myanmar government to end these brutal crimes and stop the army’s ongoing rampage,” Rouhani (pictured below) said.
Asking Myanmar’s neighboring countries to take action and be more welcoming to Rohingya refugees, the president also underscored the United Nation’s role in resolving the crisis.
The latest eruption of violence in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine has killed more than 400 people and triggered an exodus of the Rohingya to Bangladesh.
Nearly 125,000 refugees from Rakhine have fled to Bangladesh since violence escalated in late August, overwhelming existing camps for the displaced.
The UN believes the government of Myanmar might have committed ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in its crackdown. Rohingya Muslims are considered by the UN the “most persecuted minority group in the world.”
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday that Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar are facing a risk of ethnic cleansing.