UN 'scrapped report that predicted Rohingya Muslim crisis because it criticised the aid agency’s role in Burma’

Review of its human rights strategy warned of 'heavy-handed' response to any Rohingya uprising

Newly arrived Rohingya refugees board a boat as they transfer to a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh (Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

A study that predicted the Rohingya Muslim crisis in Burma was scrapped by the UN because it criticised its human rights strategy in the country, a report said.

An independent review into its role in Rakhine state found the agency needed to “improve overall coherence” in its tactics to deal with any violenc there.

It urged the body to undertake “serious contingency planning” because it foresaw a “serious deterioration” in relations between the Rohingya and the mostly Buddhist local population.

The document also warned that any outbreak of violence by the Rohingya, many of whom have fled a violent crackdown in Burma, would trigger a “heavy-handed” response by the military.

But the UN’s chief in Burma, Renata Lok-Dessallien, shelved the report she received in May because she “didn’t like the analysis”, according to an insider, The Guardian reported.

Months later in August more than 500,000 Rohingya fled from Rakhine amid claims the security services have burned them out of their villages.

The army moved in on the Muslim minority villages concentrated in its western state after it accused a Rohingya militant group of attacking native Burmese and police outposts.

The UN commissioned independent analyst Richard Horsey to review its humanitarian mission in Burma – which includes the World Food Programme - earlier this year.

But the report was never tabled at any meetings “because Renata [Lok-Dessallien] didn’t like the analysis”, a source said.

Another said: “It was given to Renata and she didn’t distribute it further because she wasn’t happy with it.”

But a spokesperson for the UN in Burma - also known as Myanmar - said the review was discussed in a meeting open to all its aid agencies there in April: “The UN agreed with the document’s outline of some of the challenges of providing peace, humanitarian and development assistance in Rakhine state, and the risk of further outbreaks of violence.

“In fact, the UN in Myanmar was already putting in place some of the changes suggested in the document prior to its release."

But a senior aid official said the report was “kept very low-key”.

The source added: “Criticisms, constructive ones, are rarely taken as learning opportunities but are received as personal attacks and provoke defensive responses.”