Diplomat quits ‘whitewash’ Rohingya panel
US member of Burmese refugee board accuses his long-time friend Suu Kyi of lacking ‘moral leadership’
A SENIOR US diplomat rebuked Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese 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 yesterday, Mr Richardson reiterated that the panel was likely to become a “cheerleading squad” for Burmese government policy rather than bring about the changes needed for peace.
He also revealed that he was “extremely upset” at Ms Suu Kyi’s “furious response” to his request that she address the recent controversial arrest of two Reuters journalists swiftly and fairly. Mr Richardson is long-time friend of Ms Suu Kyi and has known her since the Eighties.
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 US, United Nations and the wider international community.
“Freedom of the press to report the facts is a fundamental bedrock of democracy,” wrote Mr Richardson, revealing that a meeting with the minister of home affairs about the journalists was abruptly cancelled after his argument with Ms Suu Kyi.
Mr 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 recognise 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 Ms Suu Kyi with an alternative title.
He also criticised 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. Mr Sathirathai has so far not responded.
The Burmese government yesterday said it had made the decision to dump Mr Richardson from the panel, accusing the veteran politician of a “personal attack” on Ms Suu Kyi in his resignation letter.
Zaw Htay, the government spokesman, added that the American had raised the case of the reporters even though it “was not part of the work of the advisory board”.