Speaking in Geneva on Monday while presenting his latest report to the UN's Human rights commission Tomas Quintana the UN's Special Rapporteur for human rights in Burma said he continues to be concerned human rights abuses in the north and west of the country.
“While the process of reform is continuing in the right direction, there are significant human rights shortcomings that remain unaddressed, such as discrimination against the Rohingya in Rakhine State and the ongoing human rights violations in relation to the conflict in Kachin State,” the Argentinian lawyer said.
Quintana's report revealed that during interviews he conducted with displaced persons in camps in Myitkyina and Waingmaw and during similar interviews with prisoners in Myitkyina prison he “received allegations of arbitrary arrest and torture during interrogation by the military of Kachin men accused of belonging to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).”
In his report's recommendations Quintana urged the government to investigate “allegations in Kachin State of the continued arrest and torture during interrogation of ethnic Kachin men suspected of belonging to the KIA.” This appears to be extremely unlikely given the fact that the government has repeatedly denied that such allegations have merit.
Quintana also said that while he welcomed the recent de-escalation in fighting in recent weeks in Kachin State he remained very concerned about the humanitarian conditions faced by large numbers of internally displaced civilians in the state. “I’m particularly concerned about the situation of the 40,000 displaced in non-Government controlled areas of Kachin State, and urge the Government to provide humanitarian organisations with regular access to these areas,” he said during his appearance in Geneva. Aid workers on the ground in Kachin state say that the actual number of internally displaced people in KIO-controlled areas may be far higher than the UN's estimate.
Quintana's report also highlighted the government's continued crackdown on public gatherings and free association. His report noted that police arrested 13 activists for leading a march in Rangoon on 21 September 2012 which called for peace in Kachin state. The activists who were mostly Kachin were arrested under the 1908 Unlawful Associations Act, a draconian rule left from the British Colonial days that allows Burma's President to declare “any organisation to be unlawful”.
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