UN human rights investigators on Tuesday said they needed “full and unfettered” access to Myanmar to investigate a grave and ongoing crisis, but the government renewed its rejection of the probe. The council set up the mission in March to investigate possible violations across Myanmar, with a particular focus on alleged crimes committed against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state. But hours after that speech, Myanmar’s UN ambassador Htin Lynn re-asserted his government’s “position of disassociating herself from the resolution” that set up the fact-finding mission. “We continue to believe that instituting such a mission is not a helpful course of action in solving the already-intricated Rakhine issue”, he told the council. He noted reports that some in majority Buddhist Myanmar had spread propaganda that “compared the Rohingya to pests”.

Source: Dhaka Tribune September 19, 2017 08:48 UTC