U.S. ENVOY QUITS MYANMAR PANEL

Calls board on Rohingya crisis ‘a whitewash’

TAIPEI• A senior U.S. diploma t rebuked Aun gS anSuu Kyi, the Myanmar leader, for lacking “moral leadership” as he resigned from an international panel set up by Burma to advise on the Rohingya crisis, accusing it of a “whitewash.”

Bill Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico, quit the 10-member advisory board while it was making its first visit to western Rakhine State, from where close to 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled amid accusations of ethnic cleansing.

“The main reason I am resigning is that this advisory board is a whitewash,” he told Reuters in an interview.

In a damning statement, Richardson reiterated that the panel was likely to become a “cheerleading squad” for Myanmar government policy rather than bring about the changes needed for peace.

He also revealed that he was “extremely upset” at Suu Kyi’s “furious response” to his request that she address the recent controversial arrest of two Reuters journalists swiftly and fairly. Richardson is a longtime friend of Suu Kyi and has known her since the ’80s.

In later comments to the New York Times, he said that she had “exploded” over the issue. “Her face quivering, and if she had been a little closer to me, she might have hit me,” he said.

Reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, are currently on trial on charges of breaching the country’s Official Secrets Act for investigating reports of a Rohingya mass grave. Their case has drawn widespread condemnation from the U.S., United Nations and the wider international community.

“Freedom of the press to report the facts is a fundamental bedrock of democracy,” wrote Richardson, revealing that a meeting with the minister of home affairs about the journalists was abruptly cancelled after his argument with Suu Kyi.

Richardson added that he had been taken aback during initial meetings of the panel by the disparaging of the media, United Nations, human rights groups and the international community over the Rohingya crisis, and could not carry out his role “in good conscience”.

“While it is important to recognize that the military still wields significant power and that they are primarily to blame for the recent exodus of refugees in the wake of ARSA (Rohingya militant) attacks, the absence of Daw Suu’s moral leadership on this critical issue is of great concern,” he said, referring to Suu Kyi with an alternative title.

He also criticized Surakiart Sathirathai, the board chairman and a former Thai deputy prime minister, for not being “genuinely committed” to Rohingya safety and stability, and for parroting the “dangerous and untrue” notion that aid workers were assisting militants. Sathirathai has so far not responded.

A Myanmar government spokesman said Richardson “should review himself over his personal attack against our state counsellor,” referring to Suu Kyi’s official title.

The American had raised the case of the reporters even though it “was not part of the work of the advisory board”, said Zaw Htay. “We feel sorry for his resignation due to the misunderstanding,” added the spokesman.

Meanwhile, attacks on Rohingya Muslims appear to be continuing in Myanmar and it is not yet safe for the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh to begin returning to their homes, a high-ranking United Nations official said.

Many Rohingya want to return eventually to their villages in Myanmar, said Justin Forsyth, UNICEF deputy executive director, during a visit to the Kutupalong refugee camp. But they fear for their safety if they were to go back now. “The situation isn’t safe for the returns to begin,” he said. “I spoke to one young woman, who had been on the phone to her aunt, in Rakhine in Myanmar. And they were attacking villages even today.”

Gradual repatriations of Rohingya were to begin Tuesday, under agreements signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh, but Bangladeshi officials delayed the returns at the last minute, saying more time was needed amid questions about safety and whether the refugees were returning voluntarily. Forsyth noted that international organizations do not have access to many areas affected by the crisis in Myanmar.