DHAKA: Myanmar on Wednesday condemned a United Nations official for using the term ‘Rohingya’ to describe a persecuted minority that the government refers to as Bengali, which implies they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee said conditions were ‘abysmal’ in camps where almost 140,000 Rohingya remain after being displaced in clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in 2012.

A ‘fixation’ on the terms ‘Rohingya’ and ‘Bengali’ was counterproductive, Lee said in a January 16 statement. She urged people to instead ‘focus on addressing the urgent humanitarian and human-rights needs’.

Myanmar’s foreign ministry on Wednesday criticised her remarks in a press release published in the state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

‘Use of such term by the United Nations would certainly draw strong resentment of the people of Myanmar making the government’s efforts more difficult in addressing the issue,’ the ministry said, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1327 HRS, FEB 04, 2015