THE full Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Forum will tomorrow debate the crisis in Myanmar.

Bastwell representative Shaukat Hussain has proposed a motion on the plight of Rohingya Muslims in the former Burma as millions flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Seconded by Sunnyhurst Labour councillor Dave Smith it asks the forum to authorise chief executive Harry Catherall to write to Prime Minister Theresa May, foreign secretary Boris Johnson, and local MP’s Kate Hollern and Jake Berry ‘seeking action from our government to urge the United Nations to call for an immediate and lasting stop to the violence and killing’.

It urges the politicians ‘to intensify pressure on the Myanmar government to allow both full humanitarian access and aid and a United Nations peacekeeping force, pending a peaceful political solution.”

The motion says it ‘reflects the concerns of local residents on the subject of the very worrying events taking place in Myanmar’.

It says: “The targeted killing, abuse, rape, displacement and atrocities are being described by independent Human Rights Organisations as ethnic cleansing and if unchecked then there is a real risk of genocide.

“A humanitarian disaster is unfolding by the day. “

The motion adds: “The Myanmar Government has the power to stop this in its tracks. So far Aung Sang Suu Kyi has remained silent.

“To remain silent is to be complicit. This Council and the community we represent will not remain silent.”