‘Systematic failure’ of UN in Myanmar, says UN official

GENEVA

A UN official said Wednesday there was a “systemic failure” of the UN in Myanmar and it also included the failure of the member states.

Speaking at the 41st session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee said the independent report of former Guatemalan Foreign Minister Gert Rosenthal about Myanmar, written on the demand of the UN, recognizes systemic failures of the UN.

"Any time there is a mass violation of human rights and crimes against humanity, the UN will only say it is a systemic failure... I do not know what next to do...," Yanghee stressed.She said all the victims around the world deserve an answer on how this systemic failure occurred and what the UN will do to prevent it happening again.

Yanghee said the UN failure also included the failure by the member states.

"I am posing a question to all member states. Are you going to continue to fail to protect all people of Myanmar?," she said.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, escaped Myanmar and crossed over into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

Some 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police and over 115,000 Rohingya homes were burned down and 113,000 others vandalized, it added.

* Writing by Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

GENEVA

A UN official said Wednesday there was a “systemic failure” of the UN in Myanmar and it also included the failure of the member states.

Yanghee said the UN failure also included the failure by the member states.

"I am posing a question to all member states. Are you going to continue to fail to protect all people of Myanmar?," she said.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

Some 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police and over 115,000 Rohingya homes were burned down and 113,000 others vandalized, it added.

* Writing by Fatih Hafiz Mehmet