UN Decides to Send Fact-Finding Mission to Myanmar

U.N. human rights rapporteur for Myanmar Yanghee Lee and State Councillor Aung San Suu Kyi — MNA photo.

Geneva, 26 Jumadil Akhir 1438/25 March 2017 (MINA) – The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Friday decided to send “urgently” an independent international fact-finding mission to Myanmar to investigate alleged human rights violations in the country, against Rohingya Muslims in particular, news agencies reported.

The mission will establish “the facts and circumstances” of the alleged “violations by military and security forces, and abuses, in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State, including but not limited to arbitrary detention, torture and inhuman treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings, enforced disappearance, forced displacement and unlawful destruction of property, with a view to ensuring full accountability for perpetrators”.

The Council also called upon Myanmar authorities “to eliminate statelessness and the systematic and institutionalized discrimination against members of ethnic and religious minorities, including the root causes of discrimination, in particular relating to the Rohingya minority.”

Zaw Htay, a presidential spokesman, said Myanmar “cannot accept” the council’s decision.

“What the U.N. Human Rights Council did to us is totally not fair and not right under international practices,” Htay said by phone, citing a domestic investigation. “They should have waited and watched the correspondent country’s investigation, and the result coming out from that,” and only then offer possible criticism of its work, he added.

The government may be trying to expel Rohingya

On March 13, the UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee called for “prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations” into the killings and other serious human rights violations in Myanmar while “the government may be trying to expel Rohingya population.”

“No stones must be left unturned. The alleged victims, as well as all the people of Myanmar deserve to know the truth,” Lee said during the presentation of her third report to the Council in Geneva.

A number of attacks on police stations rocked the Rakhine State on Oct. 9, 2016, triggering a draconian law enforcement response that caused the deaths of dozens and led to tens of thousands of people fleeing the country in fear.

Rohingya advocacy groups claim that not dozens but hundreds of Rohingya — described by the UN as among the most persecuted groups worldwide — were killed in the military operations in an area which has been closed to aid agencies and independent journalists.

The Myanmar government has been accused of being unwilling to open the area to international observers, leaving at least two separate UN agencies without access. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)