Myanmar government internal probe
A military appointed committee is looking into Myanmar's operation in the Rakhaine state. The irony here is that Myanmar authorities on the one hand have refused entry to a UN panel wishing to investigate allegations of persecution of the Rohingyas while on the other, the self-appointed committee is investigating on the premise of two questions: Whether the military units deployed follow the military code of conduct and whether troops strictly follow the chain of command.
The process is being questioned primarily because there is no independent party to verify whether the committee will conduct a fair and impartial inquiry and whether a military enquiry committee engaged in investigating its own members accused of mass violations of human rights can be impartial in the first place.
It is quite apparent that the Myanmar government is using one stalling tactic after another. From the very beginning of this humanitarian crisis, we have found that authorities there have shown very little inclination to engage with the Bangladesh government on the repatriation issue. Indeed the Myanmar army chief has told the US ambassador recently that Rohingyas are not native to Myanmar. Historical records on the other hand, clearly show that these people have been living in Myanmar for centuries.
The committee formed for investigating human rights violation is nothing more than eye wash—an attempt to disown the more than 500,000 Rohingyas forced from Rakhaine state in the hope of never having to take them back. Bangladesh stands committed to registering these displaced people with the aid of UN agencies and we call upon Myanmar to engage in meaningful discussion to resolve this crisis. The first step in that direction would be to restore order in the Rakhaine state.
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