UN rights expert urges int’l vigilance

The international community must remain vigilant about the human rights situation in Myanmar, said the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, on Friday. 
Lee said this announcing her visit to Myanmar in January 9-20 for gathering information on ‘events’ of the last few months. 
She would visit Kachin State and Rakhine State (Sittwe, Rathedaung, Buthidaung and Maungdaw), in addition to Nay Pyi Taw and Yangon in order to assess recent developments, the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva said in a press release on Friday.
‘The events of the last few months have shown that the international community must remain vigilant in monitoring the human rights situation there,’ she said.
‘Apart from what is happening in Rakhine, the escalation in fighting in Kachin and Shan, with its inevitable negative impact on the situation of civilians, is causing some disquiet regarding the direction that the new Government is taking in its first year of administration,’ Lee, a South Korean national, said. 
In line with her mandate from the UN Human Rights Council, Lee proposed ‘benchmarks’ to the Myanmar government ahead of her visit to help monitor and assess progress in the situation of human rights in the country. 
She said she hoped for the constructive and frank 
exchange of views during the visits to lead to real and meaningful change for the people of Myanmar.
Lee, who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2014 as the special rapporteur on situation of human rights in Myanmar, is expected to present a report about the visit to the council in March.
The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Office is also expected to send a delegation to Bangladesh for gathering firsthand information about the magnitude of persecution of the Muslims in Rakhine, widely known as Rohingya, on January 11.
Myanmar military launched a crackdown on minority Muslims in Rakhine State allegedly after miscreants had killed nine security personnel in attacks on border outposts on October 9 last year. 
The military and its cohorts killed at least 90 minority Muslims, injured several thousand people, burned down hundreds of houses in villages and damaged their businesses and paddy fields creating fresh exodus to Bangladesh in last three months.
In a diplomatic note on December 29 handed over to Myanmar ambassador in Dhaka Myo Myint, Bangladesh demanded repatriation of around 50,000 Myanmar citizens who are currently staying in the country since October 9. 
Myanmar also several times had said that they would take back around 3,00,000 undocumented Myanmar nationals and about 33,000 registered refugees staying in Bangladesh for years. 

- See more at: http://www.newagebd.net/article/6432/un-rights-expert-urges-intl-vigilance#sthash.8In7eCiZ.dpuf