Exclusive: Richardson quits Myanmar's
'whitewash' Rohingya crisis panel
Send a link to a friend
[January 25, 2018]
By Bill Tarrant
YANGON (Reuters) - Veteran U.S. diplomat
Bill Richardson has resigned from an international panel set up by
Myanmar to advise on the Rohingya crisis, saying it was conducting a
"whitewash" and accusing the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi of
lacking "moral leadership".
Richardson, a former Clinton administration cabinet member, quit as the
10-member advisory board was making its first visit to western Rakhine
State, from where nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled in recent
months.
"The main reason I am resigning is that this advisory board is a
whitewash," Richardson told Reuters in an interview, adding he did not
want to be part of "a cheerleading squad for the government".
Richardson said he got into an argument with Suu Kyi during a meeting on
Monday with other members of the board, when he brought up the case of
two Reuters reporters who are on trial accused of breaching the
country's Officials Secrets Act.

He said Suu Kyi's response was "furious", saying the case of the
reporters "was not part of the work of the advisory board". The argument
continued at a dinner later that evening, the former New Mexico governor
said.
Suu Kyi's spokesman, Zaw Htay, told Reuters on Thursday that the
Advisory Board was meeting about the "Rakhine issue".
"(Richardson) talked on a topic outside the agenda of the meetings and
went beyond the framework," Zaw Htay said. "We feel sorry for his
resignation due to the misunderstanding." Reporters Wa Lone, 31, and
Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, had worked on Reuters coverage of the crisis in
Rakhine, from where 688,000 Rohingya have fled an army crackdown on
insurgents since late August, according to estimates by the United
Nations.
They were detained on Dec. 12 after they had been invited to meet police
officers over dinner in Yangon. The government has cited police as
saying they were arrested for possessing secret documents relating to
the security situation in Rakhine.
'GOOD FAITH EFFORTS'
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called Richardson's
decision to resign from the board and his reasons for doing so "cause
for concern", but noted he had been acting as a private citizen in
joining the board and visiting Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
"Ultimately, the Burmese government and military have the authority to
determine whether the Advisory Board will succeed," Nauert said. "The
United States has made clear that we are willing to support good faith
efforts to implement the Annan Commission recommendations.”
The Advisory Board for the Committee for Implementation of the
Recommendations on Rakhine State was set up by Myanmar last year, to
advise on enacting the findings of an earlier commission headed by
former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The armed forces have been accused by Rohingya witnesses and human
rights activists of carrying out killings, rapes and arson in a campaign
senior officials in the United Nations and United States have described
as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that label and has denied nearly
all the allegations.
Richardson said he was also "taken aback by the vigor with which the
media, the United Nations, human rights groups and in general the
international community were disparaged" during the last three days of
meetings the board held with Myanmar officials.
"She's not getting good advice from her team," Richardson said of Suu
Kyi, whom he said he has known since the 1980s. "I like her enormously
and respect her. But she has not shown moral leadership on the Rakhine
issue and the allegations made, and I regret that."
Suu Kyi's national security adviser, Thaung Tun, told Reuters he had
escorted the other board members on a trip to Rakhine on Wednesday, but
that Richardson had not taken part.
[to top of second column]
|

Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson speaks during an
interview with Reuters as a member of an international advisory
board on the crisis of Rakhine state in Yangon, Myanmar January 24,
2018. REUTERS/Ann Wang

"He said he was unhappy about the situation but I am not sure what he
was unhappy about," he said. "This is just the initial stage, this is
the start of a whole year of business so I don't know what happened to
make him feel like that."
PANEL CHAIRMAN SLAMMED
Before Richardson quit the advisory board had 10 members, including
five from overseas, chaired by former Thai Deputy Prime Minister
Surakiart Sathirathai.
Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and
energy secretary in the Clinton administration, also had harsh words
for Surakiart.
The board chairman, he said, was not "genuinely committed" to
implementing recommendations regarding the issues of Rohingya
safety, citizenship, peace, stability and development.
"He parroted the dangerous and untrue notion that international NGOs
employ radicals and that humanitarian agencies are providing
material support to ARSA," Richardson said, referring to Arakan
Rohingya Salvation Army militants.
Surakiart was traveling with other members of the board in Rakhine
and did not respond to requests for comment.
Another board member, former South African Defence Minister Roelof
Meyer, told Reuters the visit to Rakhine had been "very
constructive".
"If anybody would say that we are just a rubber stamp or a voice on
behalf of the government that would be completely untrue, unfair,"
he said. "We haven't done any recommendations so far."
Other members of the board, which also includes British doctor and
politician Lord Darzi of Denham and speaker of the Swedish
parliament Urban Ahlin, were not immediately available for comment.

Richardson said he declined to join the advisory board's tour of a
new repatriation camp in Rakhine State on Wednesday, instead
traveling to Yangon.
MASS GRAVE
Myanmar's military said earlier this month its soldiers had taken
part in the killings of 10 captured Muslim "terrorists" during
insurgent attacks at the beginning of September, after Buddhist
villagers had forced the captured men into a grave the villagers had
dug.
It was a rare acknowledgment of wrongdoing during its operations in
Rakhine by the Myanmar military, which said legal action would be
taken against members of the security forces who violated their
rules of engagement and the villagers involved.
Richardson said he has asked the board to recommend that the Myanmar
government set up an independent investigation into "the mass grave
issue, especially as it pertained to ... the involvement of the
military". He did not say how the board had responded.
The Rohingya crisis erupted after ARSA attacks on security posts in
Rakhine on Aug. 25 triggered a fierce military response. Myanmar
says its troops were engaged in legitimate counterinsurgency
operations.
The U.N. on Wednesday called on Myanmar to give aid agencies
unhindered access to camps it has built for tens of thousands of
Rohingya refugees after agreeing a deal with Bangladesh on their
return.
(Reporting by Bill Tarrant; additional reporting by David Brunnstrom
and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Panu Wangcha-um in Bangkok and
Yimou Lee in Yangon; Editing by Alex Richardson)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |