Mizzima
The Arakan American Community released a statement on 6 May 2024 criticising a statement made by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Chief Volker Türk on 16 April 2024, about the situation in Rakhine State.
The Arakan American community denounced the United Nations (UN) for not protecting all the people in Rakhine.
Below is the text of the statement:
“On April 19, 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Chief Volker Türk issued a statement about Arakan (Rakhine) State in Myanmar. While the statement was trying to capture the general situation of Arakan State as a whole, it was disappointingly focused on protecting only a selective group of civilians rather than attempting to protect all the affected civilians in Arakan State.
“Since the fight restarted between the Arakan Army and the Myanmar’s military in November 2023, the Myanmar’s military has been committing war crimes and a type of state-sponsored terrorism by daily bombings, shelling of towns and villages, and burning of thousands of houses. Innocent civilians from all walks of life are being affected across Arakan State.
“The United Nations Human Rights Council has been actively ignoring the atrocities and killings of civilians and failed to take any effective action to protect those constant bombings and killing of innocent civilians or even mentioned in their statements.
“Instead of protecting Rakhine people who are currently being targeted by Myanmar’s military and military supported mobs and armed groups, the UN Human Rights Council’s biased and misinformed statement sounded stirring more misunderstanding and tensions among different communities in Arakan. More importantly, UNHRC has undermined the liberation movement of the people of Arakan and all people of Myanmar against the Military dictatorship. Therefore,
“• The Arakan American Community strongly denounces the UN Human Rights Council’s Biased Statement on Arakan State and UN Human Rights Council’s Chief Volker Türk for misinformed and biased handling of Arakan State.
“• We demand the UN Human Rights Council’s Chief Volker Türk to take full responsibility for the violation of the code of ethics for the UN personnel and resign.
“• We also request the United Nations to take immediate actions that assure protection of all civilians in Arakan State.
“Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the bombings and shelling in the civilian areas and many towns have been burnt down to ashes by the Myanmar’s military. The accountability needs to be clarified and restated correctly.”
In his 19 April statement Volker Türk warned that intensified fighting in Rakhine State between the junta and the Arakan Army (AA), alongside tensions being fuelled between the Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine communities, poses a grave threat to the civilian population.
Türk said disinformation and propaganda are also rife, pointing to claims that “Islamic terrorists” have taken Hindus and Buddhists hostage. “This was the same kind of hateful narrative that fuelled communal violence in 2012 and the horrendous attacks against the Rohingya in 2017,” he said.
He also sounded a warning in. his statement, saying: “The alarm bells are ringing, and we must not allow there to be a repeat of the past,” Türk said. “Countries with influence on the Myanmar military and armed groups involved must act now to protect all civilians in Rakhine State and prevent another episode of horrendous persecution of the Rohingya.”
