Arakan News Agency
The Arakan National Party (ANP) has demanded that the government cancel the new Arakan State Advisory Commission formed on Wednesday, of which former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will serve as the chairman.
The nine-member team includes three international representatives, including Kofi Annan, and six from Burma—including two Buddhist Arakanese members, two Rangoon-based Muslim members and two government representatives.
In a letter to the government, the ANP expressed objection to the three non-Burmese members selected to serve on the commission, stating that they would not be able to understand the background of and the current situation on the ground in Arakan State.
The region saw significant violence in 2012 and 2013, largely affecting the stateless Muslim Rohingya community and displacing 140,000 civilians. The ANP does not recognize the self-identifying Rohingya minority as belonging to Arakan State, instead describing them as “Bengali” migrants from neighboring Bangladesh.
The ANP announcement stated that the formation of the new commission would likely harm the rights of indigenous people—a reference to the Buddhist Arakanese—and national sovereignty. The problems of the state, said the ANP, is a matter of “internal affairs” which previous governments have failed to resolve in line with current laws.
Muslim commission member Al Haj U Aye Lwin, founder of the interfaith group Religions for Peace, told The Irrawaddy that he finds the involvement of international committee members acceptable and does not believe that the new commission will interfere with Burma’s sovereignty, as the ANP alleged. The work of the committee, he explained, is to make recommendations to the government based on their findings, rather than to take action themselves.
The Burmese government, U Aye Lwin said, needs to take into account the international community’s perspective, because the challenges facing Arakan State have grown beyond those of a domestic issue and have become the focus of global concern.
Some members of Burma’s Muslim community also reportedly expressed concern over rumors that the advisory commission had not two, but three Arakanese Buddhist representatives, but U Aye Lwin said that this did not come as a surprise.
There are no Rohingya members on the commission.
Source: Irrawaddy
