The UN General Assembly has approved a resolution strongly condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and other minorities.

Iran Press/Asia: The 193-member world body voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions in favor of the resolution which also calls on Myanmar government to take urgent measures to stop incitement of hatred against the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya to be Bengalis from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations.

The long-simmering Rohingya crisis exploded in August 2017 when Myanmar’s military launched what it claimed a clearance campaign in Rakhine in response to an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group.

The operation led to the mass Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh as Myanmar’s security forces committed mass rapes, killings, and burned thousands of homes.

The resolution expresses alarm at the continuing influx of Rohingya Muslims to neighboring Bangladesh over the last four decades, now numbering 1.1 million including 744,000 who arrived since August 2017, “in the aftermath of atrocities committed by the security and armed forces of Myanmar”.

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