U.N. rights expert criticizes Myanmar over Rohingya crackdown
YANGON: A United Nations human rights investigator on Friday
criticized Myanmar's crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority and urged the
military to respect the law and human rights.
Authorities say the military launched a security sweep in
response to what they say was an attack in October by Rohingya insurgents on
border posts near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh in which nine police
officers were killed.
Since then, at least 86 people have been killed and the
United Nations says at least 65,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh.
Residents and refugees accuse the military of killing,
raping and detaining civilians while burning villages in northwestern Rakhine
State.
The government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi, denies the accusations and insists a lawful counter-insurgency operation
is underway.
"It would be particularly important for the security
forces to always act within the parameters of the rule of law and in compliance
with human rights," Yanghee Lee, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human
Rights in Myanmar, said at the end of a visit to the country.
Lee said she found government claims that the Rohingya have
burned their own houses "quite incredible" and suggested that a
recent footage of police beating Rohingya villagers could be "not an
isolated incident, but a more common practice".
Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner and champion of
democracy in then military-ruled Myanmar, came to power last April after a
landslide election win, installing her confidant, Htin Kyaw, as president.
However, violence in border regions has raised questions about
her commitment to human rights and ability to rein in the military, which
retains a major political role.
Suu Kyi's government has restricted aid to northern Rakhine,
where most people are Rohingya Muslims denied citizenship in Myanmar, and
prevented independent journalists from visiting.
Lee said the attacks on border posts happened within the
"context of decades of systematic and institutionalized discrimination
against" the Muslim minority.
"Desperate individuals take desperate actions,"
said Lee.
She said that if the affected population had felt the new
government would address their problems, then militants would not be able to
"hijack their cause".
Lee visited the north of Rakhine, where the military
operation is taking place, the commercial hub Yangon, the capital Naypyitaw and
Kachin State in the north, where government forces are battling ethnic Kachin
guerrillas.
In Rakhine, Lee visited four villages and a prison where the
government has detained about 450 people suspected of aiding the October
attacks without legal representation, contact with families or explanation of
the charges.
"Many families are unaware and uninformed of this
detention, fearing that they will never see their loved ones again," Lee
said.
(Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Comments
Post a Comment