GENEVA: Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in Myanmar risks getting bracketed with “pariah states” like North Korea and Syria over its refusal to grant visas to a UN team investigating the plight of Rohingya Muslims, activists said Wednesday (Thursday in Manila). The civilian government of the Nobel peace laureate said on June 30 that the three investigators designated by the UN’s Human Rights Council were not welcome, insisting it was conducting its own probe into alleged atrocities against the minority group. That refusal amounts to “a slap in the face to victims who suffered grave human rights violations by Myanmar’s state security forces”, John Fisher, Geneva director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Does Aung San Suu Kyi’s government really want to be included in a very small and ignominious club of countries that reject Human Rights Council decisions?” he said. In May, the Geneva-based rights council appointed Indira Jaising of India, Radhika Coomaraswamy of Sri Lanka and Christopher Dominic Sidoti of Australia to serve as the three members of the UN mission.

Source: Manila Times July 13, 2017 15:00 UTC