Burma
said a U.N. human rights envoy was well-protected during a visit to a
city wracked by religious violence, brushing off his claims that police
did nothing as a 200-strong Buddhist mob descended on his car, kicking
the windows and doors and shouting abuses.
President Thein Sein’s spokesman, Ye Htut, said Thursday that U.N.
rights rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana was never in any danger.
Members of the crowd, he said, approached the convoy only to give him
a letter and a T-shirt, “so what Quintana said is very different from
the true situation.”
Burma, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million people, has been
gripped by sectarian violence in the last year that has left more than
250 people dead and sent another 140,000 fleeing their homes. Most
victims were Muslims.
Quintana’s 10-day visit, which wrapped up Wednesday, was in part
aimed at investigating ongoing tensions and the response of the
government.
He told reporters that on arriving in the central city of Meikhtila to visit a camp for
1,600 displaced Muslims earlier this week, security forces did nothing as a Buddhist crowd descended on his convoy.
He said the incident hammered home the feeling of vulnerability
victims of bloody attacks must have felt as they were chased down,
beaten and killed — often as police looked on.
“I felt during this incident, being totally unprotected,” said Quintana. “The state had a responsibility… and it failed.”
Ye Htut had another version of events.
In addition to helping to disperse hundreds of people before
Quintana’s arrival — he said 100 were left by the time the convoy
arrived — one police car was escorting the U.N. rights envoy. Thirty
other officers were controlling the crowd, he said.
“Police gave protection to him and people had no intention to hurt
him,” Ye Htut said, adding that police successfully cleared a path and
the convoy passed without incident.
Burma only recently emerged from decades of isolation and military
rule. One of the biggest challenges of the new, quasi-civilian
government has been the rising anti-Muslim sentiment.
Quintana said his own experience “highlighted for me the dangers of
the spread of religious incitement in Burma and the deadly environment
that this can create.”
“Although the chief minister declared that the trust had been restored, this does not reflect reality.”
The unrest began last year in the western state of Rakhine, where
Buddhists accuse the Rohingya Muslim community of illegally entering the
country to encroach on their land.
The violence, on a smaller scale but still deadly, spread earlier
this year to other parts of Burma — including Meikhtila, where 43 people
were killed — and has stirred up prejudice.
Quintana faced several smaller protests during his visit, most of them peaceful.
Almost all were by Buddhists, who feel that the U.N. and other
international agencies are ignoring their complaints and tilting relief
and reconstruction efforts in favor of the Muslim community.
Quintana’s ordeal recalled the difficulties previous U.N. envoys had
in dealing with Burma before military rule ended in 2011, when they
sometimes were barred from meeting people, snubbed by officials and even
denied entry to the country.
He met with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and several
prisoners of conscience who remain behind bars two years after the
country’s military junta handed over power. He also traveled to several
states plagued by decades-long insurgencies.
After visiting Kachin state, he said, he was very distressed to hear
that U.N. humanitarian organizations have been allowed access to
non-government-controlled areas only once in the last year.
But added that he was pleased to see during a visit to Chin state
that restrictions on Christians have eased notably in the last year.
It as Quintana’s eighth trip to Burma since being named U.N. rights
rapporteur. He will present his findings to the U.N. General Assembly on
Oct. 24.
(MORE: In Burma, Satellite Images Show Extent of Religious Violence)
