Key member resigns from Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis panel
‘We were winging it on the fly, not really in full grasp of the full facts and figures. Everyone was all over the place,’ said Thai diplomat Kobsak Chutikul
A key member of an international advisory panel on Myanmar’s crisis-hit Rakhine state has resigned, saying on Saturday that the Aung San Suu Kyi-appointed board risks becoming “part of the problem” in a conflict that forced 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee.
Retired Thai lawmaker and ambassador Kobsak Chutikul was secretary for the panel that was hand-picked by civilian leader Suu Kyi to advise her government on how to handle the aftermath of a military campaign that drove the minority out of the country.
The brutal crackdown started in August last year and left hundreds of Rohingya villages razed to the ground.
Refugees to Bangladesh have recounted horrifying testimony of widespread murder, rape and torture in violence the UN and US have branded as ethnic cleansing.
Kobsak said his position became untenable before a second full meeting of the panel with officials in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw this week.