‘Systemic failures’ in Rohingya response
Report says UN ‘downplayed’ signs
NEW YORK CITY: The United Nations experienced “systemic failures” in its handling of the situation in Myanmar leading up to the 2017 mass exodus of Rohingya, a UN report said on Monday.
The finding came after UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres in February ordered the internal review of the world body’s operations in Myanmar, after its officials in the country were accused of ignoring warning signs of the attacks against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority.
The report says that while “it is difficult to assign responsibility for systemic failures,” there is a shared responsibility “on the part of all parties involved” in not “conveying more forcefully the United Nations’ principled concerns regarding grave human rights violations”.
Some of the criticism of the UN has focused on allegations that the world body’s then-resident coordinator, Renata Lok-Dessallien, downplayed concerns about worsening abuses against the Rohingya in favour of prioritising economic cooperation with Myanmar’s government.
But the 36-page report authored by veteran Guatemalan diplomat Gert Rosenthal and shared with UN member states denounces a “dynamic of divisions rather than cohesion within the UN system”, “the absence of a clear and unified strategy” and shortcomings of “systematic and unified analysis from the field”.
Mr Rosenthal wrote that the UN “needs to improve, systematise and share the gathering of data, information and analysis of events on the ground in real time”, and if there are “diverse interpretations coming from different quarters”, they should be shared and efforts made to understand them.
Among the causes of the UN’s failures, the diplomat notes “the initial fascination on the part of the international community with the political transition, based in no small part on the almost legendary status that Aung San Suu Kyi had reached”, referring to the country’s civilian leader.
Asked Monday about the report, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Guterres has accepted the recommendations “and is committed to implementing them so as to improve the performance of the United Nations system”.