Myanmar to deny entry to UN staffers investigating plight of Rohingya Muslims
Myanmar says it will refuse entry to the members of a United Nations fact-finding mission tasked with investigating allegations of crimes by Myanmar’s security forces against Rohingya Muslims.
Kyaw Zeya, a permanent secretary at Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the government would not grant visas to the UN staffers.
“If they are going to send someone with regards to the fact-finding mission, then there’s no reason for us to let them come,” he said. “Our missions worldwide are advised accordingly.”
The government in the capital, Naypyidaw, which is practically led by Aung San Suu Kyi, had already said it would not cooperate with a UN mission in the country.
The United Nations Human Rights Council agreed in March to send an international fact-finding mission to Myanmar and called on Suu Kyi to “fully cooperate.” During a trip to Sweden this month, however, she claimed that the UN mission “would have created greater hostility between the different communities.”
Myanmarese troops and police are accused of killing and raping Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship in Myanmar and widely viewed as outsiders by the majority Buddhists.
The more than one million Rohingya Muslims have been suffering widely-reported aggression for years in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, which has also been under a military lockdown since October 2016. The government used a militant attack on border guards back then as the pretext to enforce the siege.
Since then, the military has banned journalists and aid workers from entering the area. Hundreds have been killed and more than 1,000 houses burned down. Some 75,000 Rohingya Muslims have already been forced to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.
There have been numerous accounts by eyewitnesses of summary executions, rapes, and arson attacks against Muslims since the crackdown began.
Suu Kyi, a holder of the Nobel Peace Prize, is accused of allowing the atrocities to continue by failing to take almost any action.
Starbucks closes 50 stores in Malaysia amid anti-Israel boycott drive
Iran, Azerbaijan top brass underline military, defense cooperation
New Zealand: Maori MPs protest in parliament with Haka war dance
Leader: All captains of criminal, Zionist, terrorist gang must be prosecuted
Iran further raises its oil prices for Chinese buyers: Report
Iran to launch major pressure-boosting projects in South Pars
VIDEO | Escalation amid ceasefire talks
EU's Borrell says ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders binding
VIDEO | Press TV's News Headlines
VIDEO | Massacre in Pakistan’s Parachinar sparks outrage
Iran decries US intervention in Venezuela’s internal affairs
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
