YANGON: A UN settlement programme, UN-Habitat in Myanmar, on Thursday rejected a state media report that it had agreed to help build housing for people fleeing violence in the northern Myanmar state of Rakhine, where an army operation has displaced hundreds of thousands.
The development underscores tension between Myanmar and the United Nations, which in April criticised the government’s previous plan to resettle Rohingya Muslims displaced by last year’s violence in “camp-like” villages.
More than 600,000 have crossed to Bangladesh since August 25 attacks by Rohingya militants sparked an army crackdown.
The United Nations says killings, arson and abuse carried out by troops and ethnic Rakhine mobs since then amount to a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said on Thursday that UN-Habitat had agreed to provide technical assistance in housing displaced people in Rakhine and the agency would work closely with the authorities to “implement the projects to be favourable to Myanmar’s social culture and administrative system”.
But Stanislav Saling, spokesman for the office of the UN resident coordinator in Myanmar, said in an email that “no agreements were reached so far” after the agency’s representatives attended a series of meetings with Myanmar officials this week in its capital Naypyitaw.
“The UN-Habitat mission emphasised that resettlement should be conducted in accordance with the principles of housing and property restitution for refugees and displaced persons to support their safe and dignified return to their places of origin,” he said, responding on behalf of UN-Habitat.
UN-Habitat welcomed the interest of the Myanmar government in international norms and standards, he added.
The United Nations’ principles state that all refugees or displaced persons have the right to return to property or land from which they were arbitrarily or unlawfully removed.
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has pledged that anyone sheltering in Bangladesh who can prove they were Myanmar residents can return, but it remains unclear whether those refugees would be allowed to return to their homes.
Rohingya who return to Myanmar are unlikely to be able to reclaim their land, and may find their crops have been harvested and sold by the government, according to Myanmar officials.
Myanmar in August suggested that UN agencies such as the World Food Programme have provided food to Rohingya insurgents, adding to pressure on aid groups which had to suspend activities in Rakhine and pull out most of their staff. — Reuters
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