Angelina Jolie visits Rohingya camps, says refugees' plight "shames us all"
Addressing a crowd of refugees on a hilltop in Kutapalong camp, the world’s largest refugee settlement, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district, U.N. refugee agency special envoy Angelina Jolie said in her speech to Rohingya refugees: "You have every right not to be stateless and the way you have been treated shames us all. The crisis is the result of decades of discrimination that has gone unaddressed."
- World
- Reuters
- Published Date: 04:13 | 05 February 2019
- Modified Date: 04:19 | 05 February 2019
U.N. investigators have accused Myanmar's army of carrying out mass killings and rapes with "genocidal intent" during the massive offensive that laid waste to hundreds of Rohingya villages in the western Rakhine state.
Myanmar denies the charge and says its offensive was a legitimate response to an insurgent threat and has pledged to welcome the refugees back.
But the United Nations says conditions are not yet right for return. The Rohingya say they want guarantees over their safety and to be recognised as citizens before returning.
Jolie said she had met stateless Rohingya who described being "treated like cattle" in Myanmar.
"I met a woman yesterday, a survivor of rape in Myanmar, and she told me 'you would have to shoot me where I stand before I would go back to Myanmar'," Jolie said.
- Venezuela's Maduro thanks President Erdoğan for his support
- I was not consulted on Syria pullout, CENTCOM chief Votel says
- Russia must develop new missiles in response to US withdrawal from INF, defense minister says
- Pope admits priests, bishops sexually abused nuns
- Erdoğan says Turkey-Greece disputes can be resolved 'peacefully'