YANGON (AFP) - @FRANCE24
Myanmar must scrap
restrictions on movement and citizenship for its Rohingya minority if it wants
to avoid fuelling extremism and bring peace to Rakhine state, a commission led
by former UN chief Kofi Annan said Thursday.
Rights groups hailed
the report as a milestone for the persecuted Rohingya community because the
government of Aung San Suu Kyi has previously vowed to abide by its findings.
The western state,
one of the country's poorest, has long been a sectarian tinderbox and mainly
Buddhist Myanmar has faced growing international condemnation for its treatment
of the Muslim Rohingya there.
Annan was appointed
by Suu Kyi to head a year-long commission tasked with healing long-simmering
divisions between the Rohingya and local Buddhists.
On Thursday it
released a landmark report, warning that failure to implement its recommendations
could lead to more extremism and violence.
"Unless current
challenges are addressed promptly, further radicalisation within both
communities is a real risk," the report said, describing the Rohingya as
"the single biggest stateless community in the world".
"If the
legitimate grievances of local populations are ignored, they will become more
vulnerable to recruitment by extremists."
Among the key
recommendations was ending all restrictions on movement imposed on the Rohingya
and other communities in Rakhine, and shutting down refugee camps -- which hold
more than hold more than 120,000 people in often miserable conditions.
It also called on
Myanmar to review a controversial 1982 law that effectively bars some one
million Rohingya from becoming citizens, to invest heavily in the region and to
allow the media unfettered access there.
The commission's
task became increasingly urgent after the army launched a bloody crackdown in
the north of Rakhine following deadly October attacks on police border posts by
a previously unknown Rohingya militant group.
More than 87,000
Rohingya have since fled to Bangladesh bringing with them stories of murder,
mass rape and burned villages in what the UN says could constitute crimes
against humanity.
The Annan
commission's findings will put pressure on Suu Kyi's government to implement
its calls for sweeping changes in Rakhine.
But she faces stiff
opposition from Buddhist nationalists, who loathe the Rohingya and want them
expelled.
Suu Kyi also has
little control over Myanmar's powerful and notoriously abusive military.
Please read here, fresh attacks on Rohingya on 24/08/2017: https://lnkd.in/g4vYGs8 (witness video clips
included)
Many in Myanmar view
the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many can trace
their lineage back generations.
Until October's
attacks the Rohingya had largely avoided jihadist militancy or violence.
Please read here, fresh attacks on rohingyas on 23/08/2017: https://lnkd.in/g25nnG9 (witness video clips included)
Rights groups
welcomed the report, saying its recommendations tallied with what they had long
argued for.
Visit here to read Rohingya news updates: https://lnkd.in/f6yfz7r
"These apartheid-like
restrictions drive communities apart rather than together, eroding security and
heightening the risk of mass killing," said Matthew Smith, from Fortify
Rights.
Phil Robertson, from
Human Rights Watch, said Suu Kyi's government faced a "key test".
"Myanmar needs
to throw its full weight behind these recommendations, and especially not blink
in dealing with the harder stuff," he said.