UN special envoy to Burma Vijay Nambiar talks with reporters after visiting a refugee camp in Meikhtila during a previous trip in March. (Reuters)
September 03, 2013
The United Nations’
special envoy to Burma, Vijay Nambiar, wrapped up his tour to the country on
Monday following visits to the towns of Sittwe and Sandoway in Arakan state.
Aye Win, a UN
spokesperson in Rangoon, confirmed Nambiar was leaving on 2 September but could
not provide any further details about the envoy’s visit.
Nambiar travelled
to the Sino-Burmese border to meet Kachin rebel leaders; to Meikhtila, the scene
of recent anti-Muslim riots; and to the restive state of Arakan where communal
violence between Buddhist Arakanese and the Muslim Rohingya community over the
past 15 months has left dozens dead and 140,000 displaced from their homes.
According to the National
League for Democracy’s Sandoway district chairman Win Naing, the UN envoy met
on Monday with religious leaders and influential figures in Sandoway.
Arakan state
government spokesperson Win Myaing confirmed that the envoy also met with
government officials in the town on 1 September.
“He was in Sittwe
to try to apply international pressure to help resolve the religious tensions
in the region,” he said. “He wanted to clarify exactly what efforts the
regional government has taken with regard to both communities.”
Win Myaing added
that Nambiar had remarked that he believed the situation on the ground was
different from what the foreign media has been reporting. “He said the
situation was not being portrayed as it actually was,” said the Arakan assembly
spokesman.
In Sittwe, Nambiar
also met with State Immigration Minister Khin Yi, Arakan state authorities and
army officers. He also visited Rohingyas in Sittwe and Maungdaw.
Though no official
statement has yet been made by the UN special envoy, it is known he met with
Burma’s vice-president Sai Mauk Kham in Naypyidaw on 31 August, and was granted
observer status at meeting between the Peace-making Work Committee, the Karen
National Union and the Shan State Army-South. It was also reported that he met
with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann.
Nambiar was granted
clearance to travel to the Kachin Independence Organisation stronghold of
Laiza, a privilege that was not bestowed on the UN Human Rights Envoy Tomás
Ojea Quintana only a week earlier.
The Indian diplomat
also travelled to central Burma’s Meikhtila township where he met with
religious leaders and visited IDP camps. It was in Meikhtila on August 19 that
the UN envoy Quintana’s convoy was attacked by a group of protestors.
Nambiar is
scheduled to hold a briefing about his trip to Burma when he attends the 68th
UN General Assembly in New York later this month.
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