AFP
Residents of communal riot-torn Rakhine state in western Myanmar protested Monday against a visit by a United Nations expert, calling his reports on ethnic violence in the region “one-sided” in favor of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic group.
But UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana stood his ground, saying that he remains impartial and that his work was based on a balanced approach.
Quintana arrived in the tension-filled state Monday, just three days after authorities fired on a crowd of Muslim Rohingyas, killing up to five and injuring several others, according to one report.
During his visit, part of a 10-day trip to the country, he will tour areas that were among the worst hit by clashes between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists last year, which left nearly 200 dead and 140,000 displaced.
Several bouts of anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar have killed at least 43 people this year.
Chairman of the Rakhine Women’s Network Nyo Aye, who helped to organize Monday’s protest on the outskirts of the Rakhine state capital Sittwe, said that Quintana had not fairly represented the Rakhine point of view in his reports submitted to the United Nations in the aftermath of last year’s deadly violence.
“He didn’t include the ordinary [Rakhine] people’s voice in his report,” she told RFA’s Myanmar Service.
“We have observed that his reports were written according to a one-sided [Rohingya] view. That’s why we are protesting against him today.”
In March, Quintana said that President Thein Sein’s Buddhist-dominated government had “not done enough” to stem violence and campaigns inciting hatred against Muslims.
He cited reports that military and police “have been standing by while atrocities have been committed before their very eyes, including by well organized ultra-nationalist Buddhist mobs,” which he said indicated “direct involvement by some sections of the state or implicit collusion and support for such actions.”
Rights groups say that the Rohingyas bore the brunt of last year’s violence in Rakhine state and represented the majority of those killed and left homeless.
‘One-sided reports’
Nyo Aye said that the Rakhine people were left “saddened” by the U.N. official’s reports on the clashes and confronted him on Monday as he came to the state capital by highway from Buthidaung township, where he had earlier been meeting with inmates at a local prison.
“I told him that, as he is working on human rights, he should think about and represent both sides from a fair point of view. I also told him that he should only submit his reports after speaking carefully with both sides.”
Soe Naing, a member of Rakhine Social Network, said that Quintana had met with many representatives of the Rakhine ethnic group, but had failed to include their views in his recommendations to the U.N.
“He has met with Rakhine community leaders and social organizations during his previous trips,” he said.
“Whenever they met with him, they all have submitted the real situations with documents to back up their claims that we had collected. But despite the truths we have told him, his reports have been written only for the Rohingya.”
Quintana on Monday met and spoke with the leaders of the protest at a station on the Sittwe-Butheetaung highway, saying that he remains impartial and committed to investigating the incidents of violence in an all-inclusive manner.
“You should know that I am hearing … your voice. All of you,” he told the protesters.
“But I also have to hear the other voices. That’s my job.”
Fresh violence
Efforts to contain ethnic violence in Rakhine state, which threatens to derail Thein Sein’s plan for national reconciliation as Myanmar implements democratic reforms, suffered a new setback Friday as authorities fired on crowds angered by the death of a Rohingya fisherman, who some reports said had been severely assaulted.
Reports said that the corpse of the fisherman washed ashore at the Buduwa camp for displaced persons near Ohntawgyi after prayers on Friday morning, setting off clashes that led to two separate incidents of police shooting at crowds of Rohingyas who had demanded that local authorities turn over his body.
The Irrawaddy online magazine cited Rakhine state government spokesman Win Myaing as saying that one person had died on Sunday at a hospital in Sittwe, where he had been receiving treatment for gunshot wounds.
It said that Rohingya community leaders from Ohntawgyi had also reported another death at the camp after a crowd confronted police there.
The Myanmar Times reported that at least five people were killed during the clashes, citing a “Rohingya spokesman.”
Reuters news agency cited local sources as saying that at least two people had been killed and more than a dozen injured in the shootings. It also quoted a “military intelligence source” in Sittwe as saying that one person had been killed and nine injured.
Bomb plot
Also on Friday, police in Muslim-majority Indonesia detained a suspect in a failed plot to bomb the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta in May—allegedly in response to government treatment of the Rohingya in Rakhine state.
Agence France-Presse cited a spokesman for Indonesia’s national police as saying that an anti-terror squad had arrested Muhammad Syaiful Sabani in Yogyakarta under suspicion of “helping to raise funds to finance the bombing of the Myanmar Embassy.”
The plot was thwarted by police on May 2 when they detained two men with a backpack holding five pipe bombs that allegedly were to have been used in an attack the following day. Later that month police arrested the alleged mastermind of the plot and a second man believed to be the bomb maker.
Authorities are also investigating whether Sabani was linked to an Aug. 4 bomb attack on a Buddhist temple in the capital in which a low-intensity explosive injured one person as hundreds of worshippers prayed.
The two plots highlight growing anger in Indonesia over the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar.
In the attack on the Buddhist temple, police said the bomb package had borne the words “we are responding to the screams of the Rohingya.”
Reported by Min Thein Aung for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
I would like to ask Mr. Quintana.Q 1. Why no country didn't want to accept the Rohinja from Thai?
Q 2. Only 10 % of them are possible come from Burma. How can you give a comment? You always defend for them. They are not from Burma.
Aug 17, 2013 05:24 AM
Jim,
RFA might be under black gold money. Most of the UN and International associations are survived by Black gold money. No Democracy or fairness is alive under shade of Black gold. The world will be hell more and more.
Aug 17, 2013 05:12 AM
Ample evidence show Quintana is wrote the words of Rohingya but ignore evidence (video, pictorial, voice) from Buddhists.
But in this comment, I would like to point out RFA intentional omission on reporting recent clashes. RFA only mentioned Police fired at Rohingya but omitted why. Thousands of Rohingya marched to Police station where less than a dozen policemen were there. Rohingya threw rocks and burnt police tents. Police fired warning shots to the air to disperse. It did not stop thousands of Rohingya from their violent acts. What would you do if you were policemen? We hope to read fair and balanced reporting from RFA.
Aug 12, 2013 10:54 PM
