Arakan News Agency
About 200 people protested the arrival of a UN human rights envoy at Sittwe Airport in troubled Arakan State on Wednesday morning, according to residents and police.
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, and her delegation are in Myanmar from July 10-21 to gage developments in the human rights situation. It is the UN investigator’s sixth visit to the country.
Ultranationalist monk U Wirathu also arrived in Arakan on Tuesday amid rising tensions between the local Buddhist and Muslim communities. Security forces in the region are on high alert after a flurry of machete attacks in villages of Arakan’s north and the killing of a Rohingya Muslim man by a mob of Rakhine Buddhists in Sittwe, the state capital, on July 4.
Authorities permitted the protest at Sittwe Airport, said Arakan police official Cho Lwin of police station no. 2, who declined to name the person or organization behind the rally. Some media reports stated that a small local group, the Rakhine Ahlin Takar, organized the demonstration.
Sittwe residents told The Irrawaddy that authorities deployed nearly 100 policemen, some of them armed with assault rifles, on the road leading to Sittwe airport.
Protesters held banners reading: ‘‘Reconcile between South and North Korea,’’ referring to the poor relations between North Korea and Lee’s home country, South Korea, and implying Lee should divert her attention there.
Lee and her delegation are expected to arrived in Buthidaung on Wednesday, where, according to residents and police, another protest against the UN envoy is planned.
Controversial monk U Wirathu, known for his incendiary racial and religious rhetoric, claimed his trip to northern Arakan was not related to the UN envoy’s visit to the area, adding that he would donate food to villagers.
According to local news site Narinjara, Dr. Aye Maung, chairman of the Arakan National Party (ANP), told reporters on July 10 that Lee would experience “huge protests” during her visit to Arakan and the ANP would not meet her.
Lee is scheduled to visit Kachin and Shan states to submit a report on the human rights situation in Myanmar to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Source : The Irrawaddy
