UUSC Applauds Ambassador Haley’s Call for Truth in Burma

By From UUSC on July 11, 2017

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley did the right thing yesterday by publicly calling on the government of Burma (Myanmar) to allow access to the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) fact-finding mission. We applaud Ambassador Haley’s statement and urge her to continue to use the United States’ position as a member of the UNHRC to call for the truth.

Since violent clashes in 2012, the Burmese government has confined more than 120,000 Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority, to more than 40 internally displaced persons camps where they are forced to rely on international food and medical aid to survive. The situation escalated late last year when the Burmese military launched a counterinsurgency campaign resulting in indiscriminate killings, mass rape, and destroyed at least 1,500 Rohingya homes, mosques, and other Muslim-owned structures. Aid workers, journalists, and independent human rights monitors have been barred from the area.

In March the UNHRC passed a resolution to “establish facts and circumstances of the alleged recent human rights violations by military and security forces, and abuses, in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State.”

Now the government of Burma, under the leadership of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is denying access to the mission in an effort to shield the military from accountability. It is bitterly ironic that the very leader who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her human rights advocacy, which included calling for international investigations in Burma, is now blocking access to truth and transparency in the country.

The response of Suu Kyi and her government begs the question – “What is the government and military of Burma trying to hide?” It makes this mission even more important. Ambassador Haley must continue her strong, public stand for the truth to be revealed in Burma and for the victims of relentless human rights violations at the hands of the military.

We applaud Ambassador Haley for supporting those under relentless siege in Burma. This type of diplomacy, along with U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission’s ongoing support for human rights in Burma is the type of leadership needed in this moment.