By Manash Pratim BhuyanManila, Nov 14 (PTI) UN chief Antonio Guterres today metMyanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and urged her to take steps toensure "dignified" return of hundreds of thousands of Muslimrefugees who have fled the country to Bangladesh followingviolence against them.
Separately on the margins of the ASEAN summit here, theUS Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also met Suu Kyi anddiscussed the humanitarian crisis in the Rakhine state.
In his meeting with Myanmar's State Counsellor, the UNSecretary General highlighted the need for allowing the returnof displaced Muslims who have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.
The Rohingya issue also figured during a meeting betweenPrime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trumplast night.
"The Secretary-General and the State Counsellor discussedthe situation in Rakhine State. The Secretary-Generalhighlighted that strengthened efforts to ensure humanitarianaccess, safe, dignified, voluntary and sustained returns, aswell as true reconciliation between communities, would beessential," the UN said in a statement.
Over 6,00,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladeshfrom predominantly Buddhist Myanmar's Rakhine state since lateAugust after large-scale violence.
The crisis erupted after Rohingya rebels attacked policeposts in Rakhine, triggering a military crackdown that sawhundreds of villages reduced to ashes and sparked a massiveexodus.
Top leaders of nearly 19 countries and officials of theUN and the European Union are here to attend the summits ofpowerful ASEAN and East Asia groupings.
Rights groups have also slammed Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, aformer democracy activist, for failing to speak up for theRohingya or condemn festering anti-Muslim sentiment in thecountry following the humanitarian crisis.
Guterres also mentioned about the issue at an ASEAN-UNmeeting. "It is a worrying escalation in a protracted tragedyand a potential source of instability in the region," he said.
According to Philippine Presidential spokesperson HarryRoque, the Rohinya issue figured during ASEAN Plenary.
"Myanmar specifically said one, they are in process ofattending to Kofi Annan report. Two, they welcome humanitarianassistance. And that the process of repatriation of (Rohingya)would conclude after signing of a Memorandum of Understandingwith Bangladesh," Roque told a press conference.
The report by former UN chief Kofi Annan recommended aseries of measures including citizenship verification andensuring rights and equality of the refugees to defuse thecrisis. PTI MPB SMJ AKJSMJ.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.