UN investigators demand 'full, unfettered' access to Myanmar
BY Agencies19 Sep 2017 5:15 PM GMT
Agencies19 Sep 2017 5:15 PM GMT
GENEVA: UN human rights investigators on Tuesday said they needed "full and unfettered" access to Myanmar to probe a grave and ongoing crisis, but the government renewed its rejection of the investigation.
"It is important for us to see with our own eyes the sites of these alleged violations", the head of the UN-backed fact-finding mission, Marzuki Darusman, told the Human Rights Council.
"There is a grave humanitarian crisis underway that requires urgent attention", he added, asking for "full and unfettered access to the country." The council set up the mission in March to investigate possible violations across Myanmar, with a particular focus on alleged crimes committed against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state.
Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly denounced the UN probe as unhelpful and vowed that her government would not cooperate with it.
Suu Kyi earlier on Tuesday delivered a nationally televised address on the Rohingya crisis, appealing for outside observers to visit Myanmar and see the situation for themselves, in a speech aimed at appeasing an international community horrified by the army-led violence in Rakhine. The UN investigator, an Indonesian national and veteran of past UN investigations including a ground-breaking report on slave labour in N Korea.
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