Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has downplayed allegations that a genocide is taking place against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and instead called on the international community to give the government "a bit of time, space and patience".
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Annan said that the international community must be “very, very careful” in using the word genocide. He instead went on to say that:
"You can feel both communities are afraid. There is fear, there is mistrust. The fear has heightened but we need to find a way of breaking that down and beginning to encourage the communities to connect."
"I think there are tensions, there has been fighting, but I wouldn't put it the way some have done," he told the BBC, after visiting the Rakhine state where much of the violence is taking place.
His comments come after Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak described the military offensive launched against the Rohingya as a genocide. A UN official accused Myanmar’s government of carrying out ethnic cleansing last week.
The latest figures indicate that at least 21,900 Rohingya have now been displaced into Bangladesh.