UN Envoy blocked from visiting conflict area in Shan State
During her
visit to Shan State last week, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of
Human Rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, was prevented from traveling to areas in
the state where rights violations are thought to have taken place for what
officials claimed were “security reasons”.
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| Photo by UN: UN Envoy Yanghee Lee visiting IDP in Kachin State last week |
Yanghee Lee, a
South Korean academic, had originally planned to visit conflict and
war-affected areas in both Kachin State and the northern Shan State during her
12-day visit to Burma but she was prevented from doing this in both states.
“She wants to
go to areas like Kyaukme and Kutkai that have many war refugees. The government
said this morning that she can’t go due to security reasons,” a person who met
with Yanghee Lee said on June 21 when he was contacted by S.H.A.N.
Heavy clashes
have taken place between the Burma Army and ethnic armed groups in Shan State
in May in the areas Yanghee Lee wanted to visit. Charred human remains have
been found in many of these areas. Man Pain village, a Kachin village in the
Mong Koe area located east of Kutkai, was also set on fire.
Although she
has been restricted from visiting much of northern Shan State, during her visit
to Lashio she promised civil society organizations that she would thoroughly
study the record of human rights violations submitted by these groups and
submit a report to the UN, according to civil society organizations that have
met with Yanghee Lee.
“Besides the
human rights situation, we also submitted [information] on the situation of
education and health,” said Yein Han Pha from the Shan Women’s Action Network
(SWAN).
The Shan Youth Network was included among the
organizations that met the UN Special Rapporteur and it submitted information
about conflicts in the Shan State, the vandalism of signboards that have been
written in the Shan language and how human rights violations still exist after
the new government took office, explained Sai Aung Myint Oo from the Shan Youth
Network Yangon.
The UN Special Rapporteur began her
trip on June 20th and will depart on July 1st.
BY: Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)
Tags: Human Rights, News
