Recently, it was revealed by the Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP) that United Nations (U.N.) boats were used to transport Burmese military junta officials to Bangladesh, with U.N. markings removed from the boats beforehand. The leaked email from the U.N. resident coordinator in Myanmar, Ramanathan Balakrishnan, stated that the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the U.N. World Food Program provided boats for the Myanmar repatriation pilot mission on March 15. The request for the boats was made by junta authorities in Rakhine State, and all U.N. markings were removed from the boats. No weapons or armed escort were present during the journey, according to Balakrishnan. However, UNHCR was not involved in the bilateral discussion between the government of Bangladesh and the de facto Myanmar authorities leading up to the current visit. This comes as Burma’s military junta and Bangladesh’s government are working to repatriate Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Burma, with the U.N. confirming its support for the verification of all refugees and paving the way for eventual return. The MAP has condemned the U.N. support of the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, calling it part of the junta’s propaganda, compromising the U.N.’s neutrality, jeopardizing aid deliveries, and putting the lives of humanitarian workers at risk. The Rohingya, who have been denied citizenship in Burma since 1982, suffer acts of violence and limited freedom of movement. In 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh due to military clampdown. The U.S. had declared that the Burmese military had committed genocide against the Rohingya, and over 1,100 civilians have been killed in anti-coup protests since the military ousted an elected civilian government in February 2021.
Email leak exposes UN transport of Myanmar junta members to Bangladesh.
