The UN human rights envoy to Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, said on Saturday that the new government and the military of the country might lose credibility locally and internationally if they continued to defend persecution and human rights abuses against Rohingyas.
Religious extremists might take advantage of the government’s failure to address the situation in Rakhine State and grievances of the majority population in the state, she said.
Yanghee Lee said this in her ‘end of mission statement’, released in Yangon Saturday evening after ending 12-day visit to Myanmar.
An estimated 66,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled indiscriminate killing, rape, arson and violence in Rakhine State and entered Bangladesh, as of January 12, since October 9, 2016, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
‘The government’s response to all of these problems seems to currently be to defend, dismiss and deny. And this response is not only counterproductive but is draining away the hope that had been sweeping the country [after installation of the government of Aung Sun Suu Kyi since early last year],’ Lee said in the statement released by UN information Centre in Yangon.
By conducting security operations, she said, with ‘seemingly little regard for the rights and dignity of the majority population residing in the affected areas, the security forces had further weakened the trust the Muslim population had cautiously put into the new government.’
Lee said that she found ‘quite incredible’ the claim of the government officials that Rohingya villagers burned their own houses, where they lived for generations, with expectation that international actors might build them better houses, considering the policy of systematic and institutionalised discrimination against the Rohingyas.
Such desperate actions were not justified in any way, she said, ‘I do believe if the affected population had felt that the new government would start addressing their situation and grievances, then extreme elements would not have easily been able to hijack their cause.’
Yanghee Lee also visited several prisons, including prisons in Rakhine state, where prison officials told her that there were more than 450 individuals detained in Buthidaung prison in connection with the attack on border security posts on October 9, 2016.
She observed that many families were unaware and uninformed of this detention and they feared that they would never see their loved ones again. A good number of the detained were not informed of charges, if any, brought against them, she said.
She stressed the need for early resolution of the citizenship problems with expedited verification process, building confidence of the Rakhine Muslims in the government, particularly in security forces, establishment of harmony between the two major communities living in Rakhine State.
There must be accountability and justice must be done and seen to be done to reassure the ordinary people that no one was above the law, Lee said.
The Myanmar government should ensure that the people ‘do not suffer reprisals’ for speaking out freely on rights issues including to live peacefully without fear, to UN officials, rights activists and journalists, she said.
The government and the military should accept international support, particularly of the United Nations, extended for successful democratic transition in Myanmar, she said.
The Myanmar armed forces commander-in-chief did not give her audience, despite her insistence, during her visit that started from January 8, Lee added.
Tens of thousands of minority Rohingyas also fled atrocities in Rakhine state to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and India over the years, as the Myanmar authorities passed an exclusionary law in 1982 denying citizenship and fundamental rights of minority Muslims living in Rakhine state for generations, making them stateless.
About 33,000 registered refugees of Myanmar and 3,00,000 undocumented nationals of Myanmar have been staying in Bangladesh for years.