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GAN/ Arakan (Rakhine State) April 22, 2024
UN Commissioner Volker Türk (Photo/OHCHR)
While the political complexity continues in Rakhine State resulting from the Myanmar junta’s recruitment of the region’s Muslim residents in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Sittwe townships, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, an Austrian national named Volker Türk, presented false narratives and wrong facts about the ground situations in Rakhine state, Myanmar. On April 19, 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner conducted a press release on the current updates about the military recruitment of Muslim residents and the state of armed and military situations in Arakan.
However, the problem looms with the press statement as several points mentioned are either false narratives or wrong facts. These are in short superficial, partial, biased and disinformations. In order to specifically prove the wrong points in his statement, it is essential to assess each paragraph thoroughly.
[What is particularly disturbing is that whereas in 2017, the Rohingya were targeted by one group, they are now trapped between two armed factions who have a track record of killing them. We must not allow the Rohingya to be targeted again.]
As seen in the above statement, the commissioner explicitly mentioned ‘two armed factions’ and ‘record of killing them, [Rohingya]’ in his comment. Here, the two armed parties can easily be regarded as the brutal ‘Myanmar military’ and the resistance force of the ‘Arakan Army’ (AA). But, it is wrong to put both of them as ‘morally equal’ given the background of their relations with the concerned Muslim community. Myanmar military is an institution that has been committing massive crimes and atrocities against the Muslim residents in Arakan for many decades culminating in the incidents of August 2017 that resulted in the ‘genocide accusation’ at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Myanmar police in Muslim village (Photo/NewsSky)
The AA, on the other hand, is an anti-military resistance force that emerged just a decade ago with the aim of protecting and liberating all communities in the region. Since its establishment of the administration led by its political wing, the United League of Arakan (ULA) in 2019, the authority has been well-reported for its fair dealing with the concerned Muslim community, promoting social cohesion activities and rescuing the Muslim residents in the disaster-affected areas in the case of Cyclone Mocha in mid-May, 2023.
AA medical team with the Muslism community leaders (Photo/DefensePoliticsAsia)
Then, even if the Commissioner assumed that both parties were involved in ‘killing’ the members of the Muslim community during wartime, it is critical to ask this question, ‘How many individuals have intentionally been killed by the Myanmar military or the AA? The clear answer will then be that it is the Myanmar military that has intentionally and routinely been killing Muslims in thousands or ten thousand numbers. In contrast, someone will not even be able to find a piece of evidence to prove that the AA had intentionally killed a Muslim individual if the collateral damage during the armed clashes is not counted.
Apart from that argument, the Commissioner also failed to highlight that several members of the Muslim community were also killed by extremist factions such as ARSA, ARA and others due to political and economic objectives.
The second controversial position expressed by the Commissioner was related to the current dynamics taking place on the ground. He said,
[Some reports say the military is forcing the Rohingya recruits or villagers to burn ethnic Rakhine homes, buildings or villages. Ethnic Rakhine villagers have allegedly responded in kind by burning Rohingya villages. The UN Human Rights Office is trying to verify all reports received, a task complicated by a communications blackout throughout the State.]
By looking at the above presentation, it is quite safe to state that the Commissioner is not only creating a false narrative but also factually wrong in his description. Indeed it is true that there are many reported incidents in which junta officers such as Bridger and District Admministrator urged the Muslim villagers in Buthidaung to burn down the Rakhine villages and houses during their meetings with the Muslim villagers. But, there is no evidence to prove that Rakhine villagers responded by burning Rohingya villages. Indeed, the Commissioner intentionally used the term ‘allegedly’ to dilute the accusation. But, what the Commissioner failed to present is the ARSA, ARA and other armed Muslim militants setting fire over the 200 Rakhine houses including the office of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), ‘Doctors Without Borders’ in urban Buthidaung on April 18-19, 2024.
Myanmar Military Bridger Thurein Tun and Maungdaw District Administrator Nay Oo (Photocredit)
What is more surprising in the news release is the point that he highlighted.
[Türk said disinformation and propaganda are also rife, pointing to claims that “Islamic terrorists” have taken Hindus and Buddhists hostage. This was the same kind of hateful narrative that fuelled communal violence in 2012 and the horrendous attacks against the Rohingya in 2017]
According to the statement, Commissioner Türk seemed to believe that the current situations on the ground are similar to the pre-2012 and pre-2017 landscape. This is logically misleading from the perspective of contextual analysis. He failed to acknowledge the improved state of social cohesion and community reconciliation on the ground between the two communities due to the implementation of the ULA. More importantly, it is critical to understand who wants ‘communal violence’ and who does not. The incidents mentioned in his statement that ‘Hindus and Buddhist hostages taken by the Islamic terrorists’ is a specific and tragedic situation that happened in the urban Buthidaung area as the ARSA, ARA and armed Muslim militants blocked and threatened the lives of over 2000 residents in the town. As an HR Commissioner, it is a grave mistake that he even did not show sympathy for the trapped human lives in urban Buthidaung. Is that because they are Buddhists and Hindus?
The UN organizations particularly the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) have dark records of its staff directly involved in the enterprise of instigating communal violence in December 2021, in northern Arakan. The plot was evidently reported by the local media that the UNHCR local Muslim staff intentionally directed to set fire so that they could trigger another round of communal violence between the two communities in Arakan. The diagram below proves the ecosystem of crime invention.
Diagram describing the UNHCR staff’s involvement in instigating the communal violence (Photo/AAInfoDesk)
Indeed, the UN organizations have hardly been neutral and impartial actors in the case of community relations in Arakan, especially when it comes to the description and presentation of critical ground situations. Apart from the Muslim community, other groups in the region deeply perceive that their voices and experiences are being highly marginalized by the UN platforms, resulting in the reduction of its core values, ‘neutrality’ and ‘impartiality’.
The UN organizations having a big responsibility of presenting the ground dynamics should approach the ULA authority in Arakan so that they can analyze the information more critically. Besides, the responsible actors from the UN should talk with all legitimate key stakeholders in the region.
In short, the statement and positions taken by the Commissioner during his press briefing are highly controversial and unbeneficial for all the communities in Arakan. As ‘human rights’ is being politicized in the UN sphere, it is critical to ask on which sources his words are based, whom he talked to and what political interests motivated him to state so. Only a fair, balanced and well-reflective statement can be a helping hand for all communities in Arakan regardless of race, ethnicity, religion and background.
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