The government of Myanmar is delaying crucial decisions on ways to reduce tensions in volatile regions, a UN investigator said on Thursday, as sectarian violence raged for a fifth day between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in western Myanmar.
Hundreds of homes burned and gunfire rang out in Rakhine State on Thursday as security forces struggled to stem Myanmar’s worst communal unrest since clashes in June killed more than 80 people and displaced at least 75,000 people.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, told reporters that the country’s new government had made substantial progress with democratic reforms.
“At the same time, we see that they are not at this point taking the proper decisions toward a real solution,” he said about the Rohingya problem. “I don’t see a real analysis of the situation.”
Quintana said a special committee set up by Myanmar’s president to look at the causes of the tensions in the west had been expected to produce a report next month but that appeared to have been delayed.
“So again we see that those decisions that are needed to be taken immediately to control the situation, to start addressing the root causes of the problem, are not being taken,” he said.