Rohingya persecution in Myanmar

China said on Nov. 20 that Myanmar and Bangladesh have backed its plan to resolve a crisis that has caused more than 600,000 Rohingya refugees to flee from Myanmar into Bangladesh.

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said the world is facing instability and conflict in part because illegal immigration spreads terrorism in a speech on Nov. 20 that comes as her country is accused of violently pushing out hundreds of thousands of unwanted Rohingya Muslims.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Nov. 15 for a credible investigation into reports of human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims committed by Myanmar’s security forces after a meeting with it civilian and military leaders.

Myanmar's army has replaced the general in charge of Rakhine state, an army media officer said on Nov. 13, where an army operation drove more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

The United Nations Security Council urged the Myanmar government on Nov. 6 to “ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine state,” where violence has forced more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee the Buddhist-majority Asian country.

Bangladesh opens talks with neighboring Myanmar on Monday with the aim of securing the return home of more than half a million Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar, most of whom have arrived since late August, reported Reuters. 

Myanmar's military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims has likely killed hundreds of people, with children slaughtered and women raped in a campaign that may amount to ethnic cleansing, the United Nations said on Feb. 3. 

More than a dozen Nobel laureates on Dec. 29 urged the United Nations to "end the human crisis" of Myanmar's Rohingya minority group, whose members have been fleeing to Bangladesh to escape a bloody military crackdown.