Activists reject Myanmar's new Rakhine body, call for
independent probe into Rohingya abuse
A new body set up by Myanmar's
government to investigate allegations of rights abuses against Rohingya in
Rakhine lacks credibility, activists said Friday, as former UN chief Kofi Annan
began a visit to the troubled state.
Myanmar's de facto leader Aung
San Suu Kyi has faced a growing international backlash for failing to probe
claims the army is carrying out ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority.
But rights groups rejected the
new 13-member commission as toothless, noting it includes no Muslims and is led
by Vice President Myint Swe, a retired army general formerly blacklisted by the
United States.
A close ally of former junta
leader Than Shwe, Myint Swe was head of special operations in Yangon when the
military government ordered a bloody crackdown on the monk-led protests of the
Saffron Revolution in 2007.
“We've got little faith in
another homegrown commission, particularly if it's headed by a military man,”
said Matthew Smith, chief executive of Fortify Rights.
“This new commission won't be
capable of conducting a credible human rights investigation, and it certainly
lacks independence. The time for an independent international investigation is
now.”
Phil Robertson, deputy director
of Human Rights Watch in Asia, said the new commission “doesn't look like it's
independent or impartial”.
Suu Kyi's office said the new
commission would investigate the raids on police border posts on October 9 that
sparked the deadly military lockdown as well as “international accusations” of
army abuses.
It is the second body created
by Suu Kyi to try to heal the religious divide that has split Rakhine state
since deadly sectarian unrest killed more than 100 people in 2012.
In August, she appointed fellow
Nobel laureate Annan to head a separate body, which Buddhist nationalists have
bitterly denounced as foreign meddling.
Oo Hla Saw, a senior politician
from the Arakan National Party, said “the new commission will do nothing
different. I don't have much hope for it,” he told AFP.
Privately some Muslim leaders
in Myanmar also said they were concerned their voices would not be represented,
but asked not to be quoted for fear of reprisals.
More than 10,000 Rohingya have
fled to Bangladesh in recent weeks, the United Nations said on Wednesday,
fleeing a bloody army crackdown in the north of Rakhine state.
Arrivals in Bangladesh have
told AFP horrifying stories of gang rape, torture and murder at the hands of
Myanmar's security forces.
Myanmar has denied allegations
of abuse, but has also banned foreign journalists and independent investigators
from accessing the area.
On Friday, former UN chief
Annan was greeted by protesters holding signs reading “Ban the Kofi Annan
commission” as he touched down in Sittwe airport on his first trip to Rakhine
since the crisis erupted.
Commission member Aye Lwin told
AFP the trip was for “gathering facts... we won't be giving any conclusion”.