UN Human Rights Envoy: Displaced Rohingya Still Suffering

Conditions in camps for members of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority, forced from their homes four years ago by communal violence, remain poor with overcrowding, the deterioration of temporary housing, and a lack of proper sanitation facilities, the U.N.'s special human rights envoy to the country said Friday.

Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee, speaking to reporters in Yangon at the end of her fourth trip to the Southeast Asian country, said ending institutionalized discrimination against the Muslim communities in western Rakhine State must be an urgent priority, and restrictions on them cannot be justified on grounds of security or ensuring stability. (Courtesy of nytimes.com)

Myanmar must ‘urgently’ end abuses against Muslims: UN envoy

Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, was speaking after a nearly two-week visit to the Buddhist-majority nation, her first since Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party took office several months ago, ending five decades of military rule.

Suu Kyi, a globally celebrated champion for human rights, has faced criticism for not taking a stronger stance on the Rohingya’s plight as she leads her country into a new era.

Lee’s visit included a trip to strife-torn Rakhine, a western region scarred by bouts of religious bloodshed between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012. (Courtesy of samaa.tv)

U.N. rights investigator urges Myanmar to crack down on religious violence

A United Nations human rights investigator on Friday urged the Myanmar government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi to investigate last week's mob attack on a mosque and crack down on religious violence.

In one of the most serious outbursts of inter-religious violence in months, a group of men from a village in central Myanmar last week destroyed a mosque in a dispute over its construction and beat up a Muslim man.

In a separate incident on Friday, Buddhists burned down a Muslim prayer hall in northern Kachin State, police said. (Courtesy of uk.reuters.com)

We need rule of law, not mob rule

The excuse given by Bago Chief Minister U Win Thein for the lack of action against the anti-Muslim lawbreakers is that the regional government is worried arrests will lead to more violence. “If we take action on people, the situation will be bad,” he told this paper.

Meanwhile, U Gambira, whose legal woes have been decried internationally as being politically motivated – and who suffers from serious mental health issues relating to his incarceration and torture as a political prisoner – faces years longer in jail.

How clearly we see that this government can be as willing to be complicit in persecution – political or religious – as its predecessor was. (Courtesy of mmtimes.com)