Maungdaw, Arakan State: The UN’s new human rights envoy to Burma, Ms. Yanghee Lee, didn’t meet any Rohingya from Maungdaw District, according to a human rights watchdog from Maungdaw named Halim.
Ms. Lee visited Maungdaw Police Station to observe the condition of Rohingya and Rakhine detainees, but a Maungdaw Police Station assistant—who declined to be named—said that the only Rohingya Ms. Lee spoke with was actually a government official masquerading as a detainee. The assistant also said that Rohingya detainees from the Maungdaw Police Station had been transferred three miles away to Hluntin Headquarters prior to the UN envoy’s visit.
According to an elder from Buthidaung, Ms. Lee wasn’t able to visit Rohingya detainees at Buthidaung Jail or local Rohingyas in Buthidaung Town either.
When Arakan State’s new chief minister, Maj-General Maung Maung Ohn, met Ms. Lee in Akyab he told her that Rakhines and Muslims in Arakan State are being separated in order to prevent conflict from breaking out again.
Maj-General Maung Maung Ohn also told the UN envoy that “We will verify the identity of Muslims in Arakan State in accordance with the 1982 Citizenship Law, and whoever obtains citizenship through this process can travel freely all over the country.”
The Yangon Times recently quoted Burma's Deputy Immigration and Population Minister Kyaw Kyaw Win as saying that “If they themselves identify as Bengali and request to have their citizenship status verified, then we will investigate their background under the 1982 Citizenship Law.”
When asked about Kyaw Kyaw Win’s statement, a local Rohingya told Kaladan Press that “If we accept being identified as ‘Bengali,’ then we’ll lose even before the government starts collecting census data. But so far, we haven’t accepted being identified as ‘Bengali’ and we only want to be identified as ‘Rohingya.’
