The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator based in Myanmar has been ‘rotated’ from her post, a UN spokesperson confirmed to the BBC yesterday.
An internal document obtained by the BBC referred to the Myanmar UN team as ‘glaringly dysfunctional’, and describes ‘strong tensions’ between different parts of the organization.
Renata Lok-Dessallien has been in the role for three and a half years, having first arrived in the country in January, 2014. Before that, she served as the UN Development Program’s deputy resident representative in Myanmar from 2000 to 2002.
While the spokesperson also told the BBC that Lok-Dessallien’s rotation was not a reflection of her performance, which has been ‘consistently appreciated,’ anonymous diplomatic and aid groups confided to the BBC that the decision was linked to her failure to prioritize human rights.
Over the last few years, multiple rights groups and media organizations have repeatedly voiced their disappointment in the UN’s work in Myanmar under Lok-Dessallien’s authority. Most prominently, the UN team in Myanmar has been criticized for staying silent in regards to the events in Rakhine State, despite international outcry that the Myanmar government is carrying out a large-scale systematic persecution against the region’s Rohingya population.
Last year, VICE News published an end-of-assignment report written by a UN staff member who had been posted in Myanmar, directed towards their former colleagues. In regards to the Rohingya crisis, the author wrote: “I had to conclude time and time again that the RC [Resident Coordinator] discarded or simply ignored information that underscored the seriousness of the situation… I was instructed to rewrite history”.
In response, Lok-Dessallien told VICE, “I don’t think anyone has spoken out as loudly as the UN on rights violations.”
It is perhaps also worth noting that the usual term for Lok-Dessallien’s post is five years.
