\n Myanmar must scrap restrictions on movement and citizenship for its Rohingya minority if it wants to avoid fuelling extremism and bring peace to Rakhine state, a commission led by former UN chief Kofi Annan said Thursday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rights groups hailed the report as a milestone for the persecuted Rohingya community because the government of Aung San Suu Kyi has previously vowed to abide by its findings.\n<\/p>\n
\n The western state, one of the country's poorest, has long been a sectarian tinderbox and mainly Buddhist Myanmar has faced growing international condemnation over its treatment of the Muslim Rohingya there.\n<\/p>\n
\n Annan was appointed by Suu Kyi to head a year-long commission tasked with healing long-simmering divisions between the Rohingya and local Buddhists.\n<\/p>\n
\n Speaking at the unveiling of its landmark report in Yangon, the former UN chief warned that failure to implement its recommendations could lead to more extremism and violence.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Tensions remain high and the status quo cannot continue,\" Annan told reporters. \"There is no time to lose, the situation in Rakhine state is becoming more precarious.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Among the key recommendations by the nine-member panel was ending all restrictions on movement imposed on the Rohingya and other communities in Rakhine, and shutting down refugee camps -- which hold more than 120,000 people in often miserable conditions.\n<\/p>\n
\n It also called on Myanmar to review a controversial 1982 law that effectively bars some one million Rohingya from becoming citizens, to invest heavily in the region and to allow the media unfettered access there.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The commission has chosen to squarely face these sensitive issues because we believe that if they are left to fester, the future of Rakhine State, and indeed Myanmar as a whole, will be irretrievably jeopardized,\" Annan said.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Security crackdown -\n<\/p>\n
\n The commission's task became increasingly urgent after the army launched a bloody crackdown in the north of Rakhine following deadly October attacks on police border posts by a previously unknown Rohingya militant group.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 87,000 Rohingya have since fled to Bangladesh bringing with them stories of murder, mass rape and burned villages in what the UN says could constitute crimes against humanity.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Annan commission's findings will put pressure on Suu Kyi's government to implement its calls for sweeping changes in Rakhine.\n<\/p>\n
\n But she faces stiff opposition from Buddhist nationalists, who loathe the Rohingya and want them expelled.\n<\/p>\n
\n Suu Kyi also has little control over Myanmar's powerful and notoriously abusive military.\n<\/p>\n
\n Many in Myanmar view the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many can trace their lineage back generations.\n<\/p>\n
\n Until October's attacks the Rohingya had largely avoided jihadist militancy or violence.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rights groups welcomed the report, saying its recommendations tallied with what they had long argued for.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"These apartheid-like restrictions drive communities apart rather than together, eroding security and heightening the risk of mass killing,\" said Matthew Smith from Fortify Rights.\n<\/p>\n
\n Phil Robertson from Human Rights Watch said Suu Kyi's government faced a \"key test\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Myanmar needs to throw its full weight behind these recommendations, and especially not blink in dealing with the harder stuff,\" he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Myanmar must scrap restrictions on movement and citizenship for its Rohingya minority if it wants to avoid fuelling extremism and bring peace to Rakhine state, a commission led by former UN chief Kofi Annan said Thursday. Rights groups hailed the report as a milestone for the persecuted Rohingya community because the government of Aung San […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-34427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n