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18/4/00AAP:UN COOPERATING IN ETHNIC



[The predicaments of Rohingya population, despite the presence of UNHCR
in Arakan, is certainly out to be looked at in detail. You will need
Acrobat reader to read the webreport (english/france)  at
URL             http://www.fidh.org/
regards, U Ne Oo.]
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BURMA-UN ASIA: UN COOPERATING IN "ETHNIC CLEANSING" OF BURMESE MUSLIMS
DATE: 03:09 18-Apr-00
 ASIA: UN cooperating in "ethnic cleansing" of Burmese Muslims Burma UN

 PARIS, April 17 AFP - A leading international human rights group today
accused the United Nations refugee agency  of co-operating with Myanmar
in the expulsion of its Muslim minority.

 In a report on the flight of 100,000 of the Rohingya people to
Bangladesh since 1996, the International Federation of  Human Rights
Leagues (FIDH) said the UNHCR was "entrapped in an insane policy, in
complete contradiction to its  mandate".

 The UNHCR was called on in 1991 to organise the repatriation to
Myanmar's Arakan province of a quarter of a million  Rohingyas who fled
to Bangladesh to escape a campaign of terror by the state authorities.

 Most of those refugees had now returned, the FIDH said, but now a new
and more subtle form of "ethnic cleansing"  was in process, and
thousands of Rohingyas were once again moving across the border.

 "Every piece of information the FIDH has collected tends to show that
the Burmese (Myanmar) government aims at  emptying Arakan of its
population, though in an insidious and incremental way so as not to
attract the attention of  the international community," the report said.

 By refusing to acknowledge this and by continuing to work with the
Myanmar authorities, "the UNHCR now bears a  heavy part of the
responsibility in the current exodus of the Rohingyas", the report said.

 "Collaboration with the Burmese government seriously compromises the
image of the UNHCR. The Rohingyas do  not really consider the agency as
an independent organisation ... but rather as a partner of the
government," it said.

 According to FIDH, the Myanmar authorities had long harboured the aim
of emptying Arakan of its Muslim  Rohingya population, and were pursuing
policies of discrimination and under-development to force them out.

 "The Burmese authorities, with the collaboration of the UNHCR, have
prevented massive departures," the report  said.

 "The UNHCR still refuses to acknowledge the scope of the movement ...
and claims the Rohingyas are 'economic  migrants'. The FIDH believes on
the contrary that there is a deliberate policy of discrimination and
repression against  the Rohingya population."

 AFP lw
**************
FIDH
Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme

INVITATION

Birmanie: repression, discrimination et nettoyage ethnique en Arakan

Une conference de presse
qui se tiendra le 17 avril 2000 a 11 h 30
au siege de la FIDH, 17, passage de la Main d'Or, Paris 11eme

INTERVENANTS:

Patrick Baudouin, president de la FIDH
Anne-Christine Habbard, secretarie generale adjointe de la FIDH

Le rapport de la FIDH decrit la nature et les mecanismes de la
rrepression qui poussent les Rohingyas a un nouvel exil au Bangladesh,
malgre la precarite des conditions de vie qu'ils trouvent dans ce pays.
IIs sont entre 50 000 et 100 000 a voir, entre 1996 et 1999, retrove le
chemin de l'exode. A I'ssue d'un an e'enquete, la FIDH estime que le HCR
porte une lourde part de responsabilite et quil a gravement failli a
satache et contrevenu en de nombreux points a son mandat. Mais si sa
responsibilitte est pleinement engagee, elle n'est pas la seule : c'est
a la communaute internationale qu'il incombe en effect de faire
suffisamment pression sur les autorities birmanes pour que cesse la
repression ; et de soutenir le Bangladesh pour qu'il offre un asile sur
aux refugies. Force est de constater lechec, sinnon l'abseace de toute
tentative a cet egard

Ce rapport sera disponible en francais et en anglais sur le site de la
FIDH (www. fidh.org) a partir du ventredi En cas de

FIDH, 17 passage de la Main d'Or-75011 Paris -France.
Tel: (33) 1.43.55.25.18
Fax:(33) 1.43.55.18.80
--
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