The
crisis in Myanmar's Rakhine state, where sectarian violence erupted
last year, risks spreading and endangering democratic reforms undertaken
since military rule ended in 2011, a U.N. investigator said on
Thursday.
Myanmar should release the
remaining 250 political prisoners, end torture by police and address
root causes of ethnic conflicts, the independent investigator Tomas Ojea
Quintana said.
“There remains a large gap between
reform at the top and implementation on the ground,” he said in an
annual report to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
“Rakhine state is going through a
profound crisis that threatens to spread to other parts of the country
and has the potential to undermine the entire reform process in
Myanmar.”
Ojea Quintana visited Myanmar for
five days last month and held talks with ministers, opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi and prisoners. He also visited camps for displaced
people uprooted by ethnic clashes in Rakhine and Kachin states.
“While the process of reform is
continuing in the right direction, there are significant human rights
shortcomings that remain unaddressed, such as discrimination against the
Rohingya in Rakhine State and the ongoing human rights violations in
relation to the conflict in Kachin State,” he said.
They must not become entrenched and destabilise the reform process, said Ojea Quintana, an Argentine human rights lawyer.
Deadly sectarian violence erupted last June and October in Rakhine state between Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas.
“Both Muslim and Buddhist Rakhine
communities continue to suffer the consequences of violence that the
government has finally been able to control, though question marks
remain over the extent to which excessive force has been used,” he said.
The Nasaka, a border security force accused of committing serious violations against Muslims, should be suspended.
Ojea Quintana voiced
concern at the “endemic discrimination” against the estimated 800,000
Muslim Rohingyas who lack legal status, and called for discriminatory
regulations to be removed.
The Yangon government says the
Rohingyas are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and does not regard
them as citizens. Bangladesh also denies them citizenship.
More
than 1 100 people, the vast majority of them Rohingya men and boys, are
reported to be detained, the U.N. envoy said, urging authorities to
ensure that they are not mistreated.
Despite a more open environment
after decades of military rule, people in Myanmar can be imprisoned for
taking part in a peaceful march, he said, calling for the law to be
amended.
He saw “no evidence that the judiciary is developing any independence from the executive branch of government”.
The quasi-civilian government of
President Thein Sein must address serious abuses by the junta and
prosecute perpetrators. “Measures to ensure justice and accountability,
and access to truth, must therefore remain part of Myanmar's reform
agenda.”
Ojea Quintana welcomed increased freedom for Internet users and the reopening of prisons to visits by the Red Cross.
The conflict in Kachin, a volatile
area bordering China, escalated in recent months, with the military
using air power and heavy artillery to attack targets in Laiza, he said.
He
cited continued allegations of “attacks against civilian populations,
extrajudicial killings, sexual and gender-based violence, arbitrary
arrest and detention, as well as torture”.
Kachin men suspected of having links to the Kachin Independence Army have been arrested and possibly tortured.
Authorities must pursue
negotiations with armed groups and protect civilians in Kachin, he said.
“Any durable political solution must address the root causes of the
conflict and should address the particular concerns of ethnic minority
groups.” - Reuters
(သတင္းအရင္းအျမစ္- iolnews (www.iol.co.za) written by Stephanie Nebehay)
