TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - UN special envoy on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Ojea Quintana, said that violence against a Muslim minority in Myanmar poses a serious threat to the country's economic and political reforms in the country.
"The situation in Rakhine State has fed a wider anti-Muslim narrative in Myanmar, which is posing one of the most serious threats to the reform process," said Quintana on Thursday, October 24, 2013. "Rakhine State remains in a situation of profound crisis," he added.
He added, "Allegations of gross violations since the violence erupted last June, including by state security personnel, remains unaddressed."
The government said that at least 192 people were killed in June and October 2012 during clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, most of whom Myanmar deemed as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
The clashes led to unrest elsewhere in the country, where other groups of Muslims have been targeted, including Kamans, who are of different ethnicity from Rohingya Muslims.
AL JAZEERA | CHOIRUL
