{"id":33267,"date":"2017-03-17T10:10:29","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T10:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/myanmar-must-allow-rohingya-to-leave-camps\/"},"modified":"2017-03-17T10:10:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T10:10:03","slug":"myanmar-must-allow-rohingya-to-leave-camps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/myanmar-must-allow-rohingya-to-leave-camps\/","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar must ‘allow Rohingya to leave camps’"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Panel led by ex-UN boss Kofi Annan says camps where tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims are trapped should be closed.}<\/p>\n

Myanmar should close bleak camps where tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya Muslims have been trapped for nearly five years, according to a commission led by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan.<\/p>\n

More than 120,000 Rohingya have languished in camps for internally displaced people (IDP) since they were driven from their homes after a wave of inter-religious violence engulfed western Rakhine State in 2012.<\/p>\n

Most are not allowed to leave the camps, where they live in piecemeal shelters with little access to food, and are denied access to basic education and healthcare.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s really about time they close the camps and allow people, particularly those who have gone through the [citizenship] verification process, access to freedom of movement and all rights of citizenship,” Annan told the Reuters news agency by telephone.<\/p>\n

Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi last year appointed Annan to head a commission given the task of healing long-simmering divisions between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine.<\/p>\n

“The commission calls for a plan to close all IDP camps in Rakhine state,” Ghassan Salame, a member of the body, told reporters at the launch of the body’s interim report on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The report also called for the government to ensure “security and livelihood opportunities at the site of return\/relocation” for those leaving the camps, including the building of new houses.<\/p>\n

Residents complain of a system of checkpoints in parts of Rakhine state and widespread extortion by officials at roadblocks.<\/p>\n

Myanmar has long faced international condemnation for its treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority, with the issue reaching boiling point in recent months after the army launched a bloody crackdown in the north of Rakhine following a number of deadly attacks on several police border posts in October.<\/p>\n

UN investigators who interviewed escapees in Bangladesh have accused Myanmar’s security forces of responding with a campaign of murder, gang rape and arson that may amount to genocide.<\/p>\n

According to the UN, 74,000 people have fled the conflict zone since October. <\/p>\n

In February, a UN report accused Myanmar’s security forces of carrying out mass rapes, burning families to death and other killings, possibly amounting to crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, on Monday called the on UN to launch its highest-level investigation into the violence, which she said may be part of a government campaign to drive the Rohingya from the country.<\/p>\n

But a draft resolution tabled by the UN Human Rights Council stopped short of calling for a Commission of Inquiry into the violence.<\/p>\n

Salame said the Annan commission backed calls for an independent investigation into the violence in northern Rakhine in its report, but said anything further would be beyond the body’s remit.<\/p>\n

It identified three initial camps to close – one housing more than 200 Rohingya, along with two others that are home to Buddhist Rakhines and Kaman Muslims who were also displaced in the 2012 violence.<\/p>\n

Suu Kyi’s office welcomed the report and said it would implement the “large majority of recommendations” without giving more details.<\/p>\n

\"According<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Panel led by ex-UN boss Kofi Annan says camps where tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims are trapped should be closed.} Myanmar should close bleak camps where tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya Muslims have been trapped for nearly five years, according to a commission led by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan. More than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33267"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33267"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}