About 501,800 Rohingya have fled Myanmar and crossed over to Bangladesh.
The photo was taken on September 2, 2017 Opu/Dhaka Tribune
The UN in Myanmar ‘strongly disagreed’ with the BBC findings
In the wake of almost 501,800 Rohingya fleeing the crackdown by Myanmar military and crossing over to Bangladesh for shelter, the BBC has found out questionable steps taken by the UN in Myanmar fours years ago which have worked as a catalyse to the current crisis.
Sources from within the UN and the aid community both in Myanmar and outside have talked to the BBC’s Jonah Fisher and confirmed the matter.
They said the head of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), a Canadian called Renata Lok-Dessallien: “tried to stop human rights activists travelling to Rohingya areas; attempted to shut down public advocacy on the subject; and isolated staff who tried to warn that ethnic cleansing might be on the way.”
The UN in Myanmar “strongly disagreed” with the BBC findings, writes Fisher.
He quotes an aid worker, Caroline Vandenabeele, who had a “crucial job” in the UNCT in Myanmar between 2013 and 2015.
According to Vandenabeele, the crackdown on the Rohingya in 2012 which led 100,000 Rohingya to the camps “presented a complex emergency for the UN and aid agencies.” They needed the assistance of the Myanmar government and the Buddhist community to get basic aid to the Rohingya. At the same time they were aware that “speaking up about the human rights and statelessness of the Rohingya would upset many Buddhists.”
Ultimately, it came to a point where talking about the Rohingya became “almost taboo” for the UN staff.
The BBC’s Jonah Fisher writes: “During my years reporting from Myanmar, very few UN staff were willing to speak frankly on the record about the Rohingya. Now an investigation into the internal workings of the UN in Myanmar has revealed that even behind closed doors the Rohingyas’ problems were put to one side.
“Multiple sources in Myanmar’s aid community have told the BBC that at high-level UN meetings in Myanmar any question of asking the Burmese [Myanmarese] authorities to respect the Rohingyas’ human rights became almost impossible.”
Vandenabeele told the BBC that it soon became clear to everyone that raising the Rohingyas’ problems, or “warning of ethnic cleansing in senior UN meetings, was simply not acceptable.”
Fisher says Vandenabeele told him that she was often instructed to find out when the UNOCHA representative was out of town so meetings could be held at those times.
Fisher writes: “The head of UNOCHA declined to speak to the BBC but it has been confirmed by several other UN sources inside Myanmar. Vandenabeele said she was labelled a troublemaker and frozen out of her job for repeatedly warning about the possibility of Rohingya ethnic cleansing. This version of events has not been challenged by the UN.”
Attempts to restrict those talking about the Rohingya extended to UN officials visiting Myanmar, Fisher adds.
Another senior UN staffer told Fisher: “We’ve been pandering to the Rakhine community at the expense of the Rohingya.
“The government knows how to use us and to manipulate us and they keep on doing it – we never learn. And we can never stand up to them because we can’t upset the government.”
Courtesy: Dhaka Tribune