Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary General and current chair of the Rakhine State Advisory Commission, arrived Myanmar on November 29 to meet with the other members of the commission at the Sule Shangrila Hotel the following day.
At yesterday’s meeting, the members of the commission discussed what they observed during their first trip to Rakhine State in early September.
Annan and the commission will travel to Rakhine State for the second time today. They will visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships during their three-day trip, according to commission member Daw Khin Saw Tint.
The commission requested an audience with the regional parliament but has not yet received a reply. The commission will also meet with women organizations, youth organizations and other civil society organizations.
The commission was met with protests by Buddhist nationalists when they first arrived in Sittwe in the first week of September. They demanded that foreigners be removed from the commission. Three of the commission’s nine members are not Myanmar citizens, including the chair, Kofi Annan.
Upon his arrival in Yangon following the commission’s first observation trip, Annan told reporters that he had seen nothing he would describe as oppression in Rakhine State.
A UNHCR representative in Bangladesh has accused the Myanmar military of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine State.
