UN leaders in Burma 'tried to stop issue of Rohingya human rights abuse being raised'

Aid workers and insiders claim it was known speaking up about the escalating situation would anger many Buddhists

Rohingya Muslims have flooded into Bangladesh from Burma since the crisis began (AP/Dar Yasin)

The United Nations' leadership in Burma attempted to stop the issue of Rohingya human rights abuse being raised with the country’s government, according to sources in the organisation and aid workers.

A former UN official reportedly claimed the head of the UN in Burma – also known as Myanmar – tried to stop human rights advocates from visiting the Rakhine state, which has seen a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from the Buddhist majority country.

The UN in Burma has said it “strongly disagrees” with the findings of the BBC report. The organisation has been delivering aid to the displaced Rohingya since the crisis began and has condemned the Burmese authorities.

Unnamed sources within the UN and named aid workers told the broadcaster that in the four years before the current crisis, the head of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), the Canadian Renata Lok Dessallien, attempted to prevent human rights activists travelling to the Rohingya areas.

The sources also claimed Ms Dessallien tried to shut down public discourse on the matter and ostracised staff who tried to warn that ethnic cleansing appeared increasingly likely.

One aid worker, Caroline Vandenabeele, had seen the warning signs before having worked in Rwanda in the run-up to the genocide in late 1993 and early 1994.

She said when she first arrived in Burma, she flagged up the troubling similarities.

She told the BBC: “I was with a group of expats and Burmese business people talking about Rakhine and Rohingya and one of the Burmese people just said 'we should kill them all as if they are just dogs'. For me, this level of dehumanisation of humans is one sign that you have reached a level of acceptance in society that this is normal."

She said she witnessed the UN response to the escalating situation as she worked as the resident co-ordinator for Ms Dessallien.

The aid worker claimed it was known that speaking up about the human rights and statelessness of the Rohingya would anger many Buddhists.

The UN and the international community are believed to have prioritised the long-term development of the Rakhine area in the hope that increasing the wealth in the entire area would reduce tensions between the two groups.

The Burmese government, now led by Aung San Suu Kyi, does not even use the word Rohingya or recognise them as a distinct group, referring to them instead as “Bengalis”, and referring to the growing crisis reportedly became “taboo”.

The Rohingya are not recognised as citizens by Burma, which classified them as illegal immigrants.

It is believed more than 500,0000 of around one million Rohingya Muslims have fled from the country over the border into Bangladesh since the Burmese military began a crackdown against them, backed by Buddhist mobs.

The crackdown came in response to attacks by Rohingya militants and has reportedly involved a campaign of beatings, killings and rapes, with many villages razed to the ground.

Ms Suu Kyi has faced fierce international condemnation for her handling of the crisis, with calls to strip her of the Nobel Peace Prize for her apparent unwillingness to intervene.

The UN Security Council met in New York on Thursday to discuss the growing crisis.