Arakan News Agency
A new body set up by Myanmar’s government to investigate allegations of rights abuses against Rohingya in Arakan 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 Arakan state since deadly sectarian unrest killed more than 100 people in 2012.
Source/ Image : AFP/Mizzima
