AUNG SAN SUU KYI ‘AVOIDED’ DISCUSSION OF ROHINGYA RAPE DURING UN MEETING
Myanmar
state counsellor refused to engage in substantive talks about alleged violence
against the Muslim minority, says envoy
Aung San Suu Kyi avoided discussing reports of
Rohingya women and girls being raped by Myanmar troops and police when she met
a senior UN official, according to an internal memo seen by the Guardian.
Pramila Patten, the special envoy on sexual violence
in conflict, travelled to the country for a four-day visit in mid-December to
raise the crisis with government officials.
But she said Aung San Suu Kyi, a state counsellor in
the Myanmar government, refused to engage in “any substantive discussion” of
reports that soldiers, border guard police and Rakhine Buddhist militias
carried out “widespread and systematic” sexual violence in northern Rakhine
state.
“The meeting with the state counsellor was a cordial
courtesy call of
approximately 45 minutes that was, unfortunately,
not substantive in nature,” she wrote in a letter sent to UN secretary-general
Antonio Guterres last week.
More than 655,000 Rohingya, members of a persecuted
and stateless Muslim minority, have fled to Bangladeshi refugee camps since
violence began in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state in August. Médecins Sans
Frontières believes at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed during “clearance
operations” ostensibly targeting militants, while many survivors say women and
girls were gang-raped.
Instead of discussing the claims directly, Patten
said Aung San Suu Kyi informed her she would enjoy “a number of good meetings”
with senior Myanmar officials.
During these meetings, she was told by
representatives of the military and civilian government that reports of
atrocities were “exaggerated and fabricated by the international community”.
“Moreover, a belief was expressed that those who
fled did so due to an affiliation with terrorist groups, and did so to evade
law enforcement,” she wrote.
Myanmar’s army has cleared itself of any wrongdoing
in an internal investigation dubbed a “whitewash” by human rights groups.
While in the country, Patten met the man who headed
that investigation, Lt-Gen Aye Win, who explained their methodology.
“The military investigation, which consisted of
armed men in uniform ‘interrogating’ civilians in large group settings, often
on camera, and then presenting rations to communities following their testimony
and cooperation, clearly occurred under coercive circumstances, where the
incentive structure was not to lodge complaints,” Patten wrote.
“Accordingly, over 800 interviews yielded zero
reports of sexual or other violence against civilians by the armed and security
forces,” she said.
Patten also expressed concerns about plans to send
Rohingya who have fled back to Myanmar, citing the “prevailing climate of
impunity” in the country.
Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to the “speedy”
repatriation of Rohingya, scheduled to start by the end of January.
But many Rohingya say they will not return
voluntarily until they are given citizenship as well as guarantees that they
will be safe and not put into internment camps. Tens of thousands have been
living in such camps elsewhere in Rakhine state since violence in 2012.
Skye Wheeler, the researcher for Human Rights Watch
who investigated the sexual violence allegations, said Myanmar was denying a
“terrible truth”.
“The lack of acknowledgement or care the Myanmar
authorities including Aung San Suu Kyi have shown for Rohingya women and girls
who have been brutally raped by Myanmar soldiers as part of their ethnic
cleansing campaign is almost as shocking as the horrific crimes themselves,”
she told the Guardian.
“It’s like a second attack, to endure a vicious gang
rape and then to be ignored, as if you don’t matter at all, to have that
terrible truth denied.”
The Myanmar government was contacted for comment.
News Source : the Guardian.
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