UN experts call on Suu Kyi to meet Rohingya in person

Rohingya in Sittwe in 2012.
Rohingya in Sittwe in 2012.

Seven UN-appointed special rapporteurs called on the Myanmar government today to stop all violence and serious human rights violations against the Rohingya minority that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

Also among their many demands was for State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi to meet displaced Rohingya in person in both Rakhine State and Bangladesh.

The group of experts includes seven special rapporteurs: Ms. Yanghee Lee for the situation of human rights in Myanmar; Ms. Agnes Callamard for extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Mr. Fernand de Varennes for minority issues; Ms. Leilani Farha for adequate housing; Ms. Cecilia Jimenez-Damary for the human rights of internally displaced persons; Mr. Mutuma Ruteere for contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; and Mr. Ahmed Shaheed for freedom of religion or belief.

Their call comes a month after attacks in Rakhine State against 30 police outposts and the regimental headquarters in Taungala village, and subsequent indiscriminate counter-terror operations.

“There have been credible allegations of serious human rights violations and abuses committed against the Rohingya, including extrajudicial killings, excessive use of force, torture and ill-treatment, sexual and gender-based violence, and forced displacement, as well as the burning and destruction of over 200 Rohingya villages and tens of thousands of homes,” the experts said.

“We understand that State Counsellor Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi in her diplomatic briefing on September 19 had encouraged the international community to learn along with the Myanmar government the possible reasons behind the current exodus from Myanmar to Bangladesh,” the experts said, noting that about 430,000 people had reportedly crossed into Bangladesh in the past few weeks.

The experts stressed: “No one chooses, especially not in the hundreds of thousands, to leave their homes and ancestral land, no matter how poor the conditions, to flee to a strange land to live under plastic sheets and in dire circumstances except in life-threatening situations. Despite violence allegedly perpetrated by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the whole Rohingya population should not have to pay the price.”

“We call on Aung San Suu Kyi to meet the Rohingya personally in Rakhine State as well as in Cox’s Bazar to talk to those who have fled, as well as those who have stayed, as she says the Myanmar government is interested in doing.”

The experts also expressed their alarm at the Myanmar government’s “acquiescence in incitement of hatred and apparent and the condoning of intimidation and attacks against Rohingya families by other ethnic and religious groups.”

They called on the government to provide uninterrupted humanitarian access to international organizations to assist what may be hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in Rakhine State. They also demanded “full and unfettered access of human rights monitors including the Human Rights Council Fact-Finding Mission for an independent and impartial assessment of the situation on the ground.”

“The Myanmar Government should cooperate with all international aid organizations, rather than accusing them of supporting terrorism in their efforts to discharge their responsibilities to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to populations in need,” they added.

“UN member states need to go beyond statements and start taking concrete action to stop the military and security forces from accomplishing their so-called ‘unfinished business’ of getting rid of the Rohingya minority from Rakhine State,” the special rapporteurs concluded.

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