YANGON • Myanmar's junta has rejected a UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for reconciliation with the persecuted Rohingya minority, slamming "one-sided allegations" over its treatment of the stateless community.
On Monday, the UN council adopted a resolution calling for "constructive and peaceful dialogue and reconciliation, in accordance with the will and interests of the people of Myanmar, including Rohingya Muslims".
The resolution was "based on false information and one-sided allegations", the junta's foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The term 'Rohingya' which is invented with (a) wider political agenda is also unrecognised and rejected by the government," it said.
The community had "never been recognised as the ethnic nationality of Myanmar", it added.
In Myanmar, Rohingya have long been seen as interlopers from Bangladesh and have been denied citizenship, rights and access to services.
More than 700,000 Rohingya currently languish in camps in Bangladesh after a deadly 2017 military assault on their communities in western Rakhine state that now sees Myanmar facing genocide charges.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing - who was head of the armed forces during the crackdown - has dismissed the word Rohingya as "an imaginary term".
The UN resolution also voiced "unequivocal support for the people of Myanmar and their democratic aspirations" and called for the immediate cessation of fighting and hostilities.
China, one of the 47 council members, said it could not join the consensus but nonetheless did not insist on bringing the text to a vote.
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700k
Number of Rohingya currently languishing in camps in Bangladesh after a deadly 2017 military assault on their communities in western Rakhine state.
Meanwhile, human rights groups yesterday also called for Japan to cancel a real estate development involving Myanmar's defence ministry, saying the project is linked to the military.
Japan's private firms and a state entity are engaged in a multi-million-dollar hotel and office development on land owned by Myanmar's defence ministry, Reuters reported earlier.
Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, said Japan failed to assess the risk associated with doing business in Myanmar.
Through rent payments, the Y Complex project benefits Myanmar's defence ministry, which is controlled by the military under the country's Constitution, the groups say.
Japanese company and government officials have said they thought the rent, which was paid by an intermediary, was ultimately going to Myanmar's government, not the military.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
