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| Ms Yanghee Lee meeting Myanmar National Human Rights Commission chairman Win Mra in Yangon yesterday.PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY |
Rakhine MPs refuse to meet UN envoy
Special rapporteur had been expected to hold talks over alleged
abuse of Rohingya
NAYPYITAW • The ruling party in Myanmar's Rakhine state
government yesterday said it refused to meet a United Nations (UN) envoy who is
probing allegations of horrific abuse of Rohingya Muslims by security forces in
the region.
Ms Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar, had
been expected to hold talks with members of the Arakan National Party (ANP) in
the state capital Sittwe, before travelling north to an area under military
lockdown today.
She has faced threats and been branded a "whore"
by Buddhist hardliners on her previous visits, for her criticism of Myanmar's
treatment of the Rohingya, a stateless group that has suffered years of poverty
and repression.
The group has been targeted by security forces during a
three-month crackdown in northern Rakhine that the UN said has seen at least
65,000 Rohingya flee across the border to Bangladesh.
"We have no plans to meet them," ANP
vice-president Khine Pyi Soe said of Ms Lee's arrival. "I don't think that
meeting with them is very important."
Ms Lee's spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Parts of northern Rakhine have been under military control
since October, with the army launching "clearance operations" to find
Rohingya insurgents allegedly behind deadly raids on police border posts.
The crisis has drawn a storm of international criticism of
the elected government of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, which took power in March.
Ms Lee has slammed the lockdown as "unacceptable"
and called for an international investigation into claims that troops have
raped, murdered and tortured civilians from the Muslim minority.
Ahead of her trip, she said violence in Rakhine had
contributed to "disquiet regarding the direction that the new government
is taking in its first year".
Muslim-majority Malaysia has also lashed out at Nobel Peace
laureate Ms Suu Kyi for not stopping the violence, and will host foreign ministers
from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation for talks on the crisis next week.
Bangladesh, meanwhile, has urged Myanmar's government to end
the violence and take back thousands of refugees.
"Bangladesh has demanded the quick restoration of a normal
situation in Rakhine state so that Myanmar nationals... can quickly go back
home," its Foreign Minister A. H. Mahmood Ali said after meeting Myanmar's
special envoy in Dhaka earlier this week.
Myanmar's foreign ministry said the two countries had
"agreed to commence consultations for verification and repatriation"
of those who had fled the lockdown.