The United Nations is telling non-essential staffers not to travel to Myanmar during the elections in November as “disruptions are expected.”
The advisory, reported by the Democratic Voice of Burma, was in a letter dated September 22 from the UN’s Department of Safety and Security.
“There are high expectations in the country that the elections will be carried out peacefully,” the letter says, in part. “However electoral-related disruptions are expected around the Polling Day until the final results are announced on 22 November 2015. The Designated Official, in consultation with the Security Management Team, has recommended that temporary travel restrictions should be in place for non-critical, external visits to Myanmar between 6- 24 November 2015.”
What disruptions? Who knows. The UN, one of the biggest bureaucracies in the world, is probably just playing it safe.
Aye Win, a spokesman for the UN in Yangon, told DVB that “disruptions” (again, not saying what those might be) are a possibility in “any country undergoing a political transition.”
“It is the obligation of the UN to undertake contingency planning to ensure the safety and security of its staff. These precautions do not imply any prediction into possible scenarios regarding the elections.”
Photo / Coconuts Yangon
