Dhaka: Myanmar government has barred a UN human rights investigator, Yanghee Lee, from visiting the country and withdrawn any cooperation with her for the term.
The UN special rapporteur was scheduled to visit Myanmar in January for gauging the condition of human rights after Rohingya crack down.
Lee was disappointed with the country’s decision and stated on Wednesday: “I am really deeply disappointed and very saddened by this decision of Myanmar to deny cooperation with my mandate and with any other human rights mechanisms, and most of all to silence people who speak out on these kinds of atrocities.”
“This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country,” she told Al-Jazeera.
On the other hand, Myanmar condemned her statement and called it biased and unfair.
Amnesty International also called the decision to ban the UN rapporteur “outrageous”.
“It is a further indication that authorities will do anything they can to avoid international scrutiny of their human rights record,” said James Gomez, Amnesty’s director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
During Rohingya crisis, more than 650,000 Muslims were forced to flee into Bangladesh.