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Suu Kyi rejects UN fact-finding mission

Myanmar leader's stance comes ahead of a scheduled May 4 meeting with Pope Francis
Suu Kyi rejects UN fact-finding mission

Myanmar's First State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, left, and European Commission foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini address a press conference after a meeting at the European Commission in Brussels on May 2. (Photo by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP)

Published: May 03, 2017 10:00 AM GMT
Updated: May 03, 2017 11:18 AM GMT

Myanmar's civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi has publicly rejected a United Nations fact-finding mission into hundreds of deaths of Muslim Rohingya during months of violence in Rakhine State.

Suu Kyi told the press in Brussels that Myanmar did not support an international mission backed by the U.N. to investigate alleged human rights abuses by the country's security forces against the Rohingya.

The international mission is the result of a U.N. resolution passed in March. Suu Kyi was speaking to the press on May 2 alongside the European Union's top diplomat Federica Mogherini who said that the E.U. supports the U.N. move.

The U.N. claims that "operations" by the military against Rohingya groups are tantamount to genocide.

"We are disassociating ourselves from the resolution because we don't think the resolution is in keeping with what is actually happening on the ground," said Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi said she would only accept recommendations from a separate government advisory commission set up last year which is led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan. Another committee would "divide" communities in Rakhine as it will not help to resolve the problems, she said.

The press conference came ahead of Suu Kyi's scheduled May 4 meeting with Pope Francis during which diplomatic ties between Myanmar and the Holy See are expected to be announced.

Suu Kyi, also Myanmar's foreign minister, has backed the country's military — the nation's former dictators — with whom her government shares power, despite accusations of ethnic cleansing by international rights group.

Suu Kyi and the previous military government that ruled the country until 2015 have come under criticism for its treatment of the Rohingya, especially since 2012 riots saw more than 120,000 flee to internally displaced people (IDP) camps and where a four-month military offensive with Rohingya insurgents killed some 200 people.

The Rohingya, who number about 1 million, are denied citizenship and other basic rights in this Buddhist-majority country.

Kyaw Min, chairman of a Rohingya political party called the Democracy and Human Rights Party, who was elected to parliament, said the situation in Rakhine is worsening after the Suu Kyi-led government took office in April 1, 2016.

"We had hopes of Suu Kyi solving the Rohingya issue but we are now very disappointed that she has been silent on the plight of the Rohingya and has denied ethnic cleansing," said Kyaw Min.

The killing of people, sexual violence against women and looting of properties happened during military operations in northern Rakhine, he said. "It is a destruction of people who are physically and mentally suffering so it is like genuine genocide," Kyaw Min told ucanews.com.

On April 27, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, together with 23 NGOs sent an open letter calling on world governments to pressure Myanmar to cooperate with the U.N. fact-finding mission, saying extrajudicial killings, torture and the destruction of homes by security forces in northern Rakhine "must be openly and honestly addressed."

Suu Kyi denied the charge of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar during an interview with BBC in early April.

"It is not just a matter of ethnic cleansing as you put it — it is a matter of people on different sides of the divide, and this divide we are trying to close up," Suu Kyi told the BBC.

The killing of nine police officers at three border posts in northern Rakhine allegedly by Rohingya militants on Oct. 9 resulted in a surge of violence by Myanmar's military, which operates separately from Suu Kyi's civilian government.

More than 70,000 Rohingya have since fled to neighboring Bangladesh and an estimated 16,000 internally displaced people have returned to their villages but lack shelter due to the destruction of houses, according to a United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report on May 1.

Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, who frequently speaks out on the issue of Rohingya and human rights, said that the Rakhine crisis is a sensitive and complex issue that will take time to resolve.

"As Aung San Suu Kyi's government is gradually trying to solve the issue, the international community needs to try to understand the ground situation in Rakhine and the limited power of Suu Kyi under the military-drafted constitution," Cardinal Bo told ucanews.com recently.

Nonetheless, Cardinal Bo said that Rohingya, especially those in IDP camps, have their freedom of movement restricted and lack access to education, healthcare.

Around 140,000 Rohingya are currently confined to camps in apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine after sectarian violence erupted in 2012.

There are an estimated 1.1 million Rohingya in Rakhine but they were not accounted for in the 2014 census.

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