The United Nations human rights investigator on Myanmar called on the government on Wednesday to “dismantle the system of discrimination” against the Muslim Rohingya minority and to restore their rights to citizenship and property.
Yanghee Lee, addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council, said conditions were not ripe for 700,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to go home and regretted that a memo of understanding on repatriation agreed this month between Myanmar and two U.N. aid agencies had not been made public.
U Myint Thu, permanent secretary of Myanmar’s foreign ministry, told the forum that his government could not work with Lee, saying her assessment lacked independence, and called for her replacement.