Express Tribune: UN human rights investigators called on Myanmar on Wednesday to halt deadly sectarian violence and warned it not to use the conflict as a pretext to remove Rohingya minority Muslims.
Some 89 people have been killed in clashes between Buddhist Rakhines and Muslim Rohingyas in western Myanmar in the past 10 days, according to the latest official toll.
“This situation must not become an opportunity to permanently remove an unwelcome community,” said a joint statement issued by Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN special rapporteur on Myanmar, and independent experts on minority issues and the internally displaced.
They voiced their “deep concern about the assertion of the government and others that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants and stateless persons”.
“If the country is to be successful in the process of democratic transition, it must be bold in addressing the human rights challenges that exist,” Ojea Quintana said.
“In the case of Rakhine State, this involves addressing the long-standing endemic discrimination against the Rohingya community that exists within sections of local and national government as well as society at large.”
Categories: Civil War, Europe, United Nations