UN Council chief calls for action on Rohingya refugees
United Nations, May 4: Ambassador Joanna Wronecka of Poland, UN Security Council president for May, has said that the world body must act when Rohingya refugees are suffering.
She made the remarks on Thursday here after visiting Myanmar Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh earlier this week, Xinhua news agency reported.
"So, when you see the people suffering we have to act," she told reporters at the UN headquarters during a monthly briefing on the council's program of work. "The main question is how to help."
Wronecka said the Security Council would meet on May 14 for a formal briefing on the situation.
She said it was possible the panel "may adopt a PRST" (it carries the weight of international law), since "we are united, definitely committed to doing something..."
"It is difficult to live in the camps," she said. "The conditions are extremely difficult because in Bangladesh due to the monsoon season there is always a risk for raining,..."
The Monsoon has already started and have caused flooding in some areas, threatening the spread of disease and impeding the distribution of humanitarian aid.
"I had the chance to speak especially to women because they are the most affected with the children...," said a visibly moved Wronecka.
"But the refugees cannot stay forever. It was obvious. So the question is how to help them return to their place of origin."
The Warsaw envoy said members of the panel of 15 then met with Myanmar State Counsellor Aung Sang Su Kyi.
Bangladesh and Myanmar had signed an agreement on the return of refugees.
However, the UN has been saying refugees should only return voluntarily when they are ready to go where they want to go in a dignified manner.
"We see a possibility more for the role of different UN agencies to help."
She particularly singled out the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
More than 670,000 ethnic Muslim Rohingya have fled northern Rakhine State since August 25, 2017.
A PRST is a step below a resolution, which is read out by the president in a formal Security Council meeting and becomes an official document of the world organisation.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
