what happened after was a relatively
sophisticated cover-up what does that
mean does that mean that there was no
massacre that meaning that the UN didn't
have enough facts and was not able to
ascertain enough facts that something
actually occurred they saw children he
killed there were body parts and welds
the government that had just turned the
corner was now perhaps complicit and
crimes against humanity for the
international community to know what's
happening and not do anything this is
essentially the hallmark of complicity
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the human trafficking situation may have
slowed down for now but the conditions
of our kind state show little signs of
improvement worse it seems as if the
international community may be willing
to accept the status quo sacrificing the
right Hendra for political expediency
critics have alleged that the United
Nations has prized maintaining good
relations with the government over
stopping the oppression of the religion
these types of accusations against the
UN are nothing new in 2009 during the
final stages of Sri Lanka Civil War tens
of thousands of civilians were killed by
the army the UN was criticized for
failing to speak up and pressure the
government in the lead-up to the mass
killings when people faced grave
violations of human rights they expect
the United Nations to act yet in 2012 my
internal review panel assessed UN action
in the final stages of armed conflict in
Sri Lanka as a systemic failure
the internal investigation concluded
that there was a systemic failure at the
UN due to a culture of trade-offs with
the government combined with reluctance
among young staff in sri lanka to stand
up for the rights of people they were
mandated to assist in order to prevent
something like this from happening again
the UN launched the Human Rights up
front initiative which aimed to put
protection of Human Rights above all
else unfortunately there are many human
rights workers including its own
employees who say that with the roar
henjo the UN is once again failing to
protect vulnerable citizens including
allegedly turning a blind eye to mass
atrocities in Rakhine State we brought
those allegations to the UN's resident
coordinator in Myanmar Renata de Salian
there's been recent accusations that the
UN isn't doing enough and that they're
complicit in crimes against humanity and
other things that are happening there
how do you respond to those allegations
the UN is actually doing quite a lot
we're advocating for their human rights
at numerous forums in Geneva in New York
here locally the UN is doing more than
anybody else quite frankly in trying to
address the root causes and so I think
that's a very unfair argument we've
spoken to people in NGOs you know what
they're telling us is that there's a
failure but you want to push back on the
government there's sort of an
appeasement process going on and they're
concerned that the systems to prevent
mass atrocities aren't in place right
now so there's no appeasement going on
whatsoever the UN works in various ways
parts of the UN are there to stand up
and call a spade a spade and that is
exactly what's happening I don't think
anyone has spoken out as loudly as the
UN on rights violations and unacceptable
situation in Rakhine State so there's
absolutely no consistency whatsoever
however vice news got a hold of leaked
internal documents including emails and
a resignation letter of a mid-level
official that show you and employees
with mounting concerns about UN inaction
with some even questioning whether the
UN is complicit in crimes against
humanity we asked Matt Smith to help
walk us through the leaked documents and
what they mean for the right hinges what
do you make of the tone of these
documents the fact that there is
accurate information that has been
communicated and transmitted up the the
the information food chain among some of
these agencies is significant because it
demonstrates that that that that people
do or at least should know what's
actually going on and what's been going
on for decades there's no lack of
information about what's happening the
response is the real issue and there are
people who are in positions to influence
the situation in Rakhine State and not
only are they not doing it but in some
cases they've actually made the
situation worse these agencies want to
stay within the good graces of the
Myanmar authorities and there's nothing
wrong with that they should be working
with the authorities the problem comes
when there are these severe abuses
taking place when atrocity crimes are
taking place and there's an action an
internal review address the UN silence
and inaction in Myanmar and in one
e-mail a UN employee writes I'm trying
to be constructive in a discussion of
potential risk of us being complicit to
the commission of crimes against
humanity in another document an employee
raises alarm bells saying I'm extremely
concerned about a repeat of the systemic
failures by the UN to prevent
large-scale violence as we have
witnessed before
what do you think is behind this
negligence from from the UN and and
these agencies in terms of putting
pressure on the government there's a
great amount of fear among in between
agencies that are operational in Myanmar
fear that they will be evicted like MSF
Doctors Without Borders was evicted in
2014
Doctors Without Borders or MSF a
nonprofit medical humanitarian
organization was forced out of the
country after it said it treated 22
people for injuries and wounds indu
cheered on a village in Rakhine State
where Massacre is alleged to have
occurred with the participation of local
authorities the government refuted the
statements all the while refusing to
allow an independent investigation and
denying that a massacre occurred the
duty on incident is a disturbing mystery
in which it is alleged that dozens of
our hinges were killed including women
and children with the help of local
authorities 8,000 people fled the area
but no bodies were ever found the
government did its own investigations
concluding that no massacre occurred but
there are many who disagree with the
government's findings at any given time
I was the most senior human rights
officer in the country and focused on
Rakhine State Michel shake worked for
the UN at the time and is the only
international observer to gain access to
the area in the aftermath of the
incident this is the first time he has
spoken to the media about what happened
can you tell us what you saw I saw some
very traumatized people who explained
some very terrible things that had
happened killings they saw children
being killed they explained that there
were body parts in wells it was very
clear that people had experienced
something very traumatic tens and tens
of eyewitnesses who had claimed that
this had happened so you took your
findings to the UN and what happened
after that we delivered it to the
Myanmar government saying these are
these are some very serious allegations
we're hearing you have the
responsibility to investigate these
things the government vociferously
denied that anything was happening only
the military and only in place were were
able to go and go out there are travel
bans couldn't move north and south on
one of these roads the provided perfect
opportunity to scrub the air
for nearly two weeks a cover yeah
effectively yes we received information
at the time that there were a number of
killings taking place and do cheered on
what happened after was a relatively
sophisticated cover-up that successfully
influenced the thinking not only of
the diplomatic community but also senior
UN officials including at the UN
headquarters in New York there was a lot
of disagreement within the UN about what
did and did not take place and to Jared
on despite the detailed UN report citing
numerous eyewitness accounts Sheikh says
you and higher-ups were persuaded by the
government's denials so to see what
happened the UN sort of walked back as
report and stopped putting pressure on
the government yes that's what happened
it prioritized this relationship with
the government over the people that it
was in the business of protecting UN
employees like Sheikh who wanted to
press the government for an independent
investigation and who were concerned
with the way that the narrative was
being altered were silenced and
intimidated by their superiors in the
leaked resignation letter of mid-level
official States she was told by her
supervisor to never raise this with her
or anyone else if you want to continue
your career in the UN I was instructed
to rewrite history she states you know
we've seen internal documents including
emails and resignation letter that are
saying that people who were speaking up
about what happened to geodon and what
happened what's happening to the
revenger were effectively being silenced
or intimidated to stay quiet is that
something you experience as well yeah
not just with duty our time prior to
deshawn after DG air time after do share
time I got much worse I'll be clear when
you're talking about very nasty human
rights abuses
it makes dialog much more difficult and
what we see in UN is a the leadership
there doesn't want to have these frank
and difficult discussions they rather
sideline them they'd rather prioritize
their relationship with the government
and push aside those that have the facts
we've seen you know some documents that
were given to us about internal UN sort
of dissents and from what some of the
people that have worked here I've told
us is that they feel like the voices
that are raised to concern about this
are being suppressed or forced out and
that there really isn't that much being
done can you go into detail about what
happened with Duty art on why that was a
controversy and why the UN walked back
on having an international investigation
done there were deep concerns about an
incident that was very very upsetting
for for everybody
subsequent to that incident it appears
that some of the allegations that were
made do not appear to have been
substantiated so I think that it's
unfair to say that the UN backed away
from calling for an investigation the
information that we subsequently learned
didn't corroborate the initial
allegations that were were made meaning
that they don't think any sort of
massacre occurred there was no violence
there was no what does that mean
meaning that the UN didn't have enough
facts and was not able to ascertain
enough facts that something actually
occurred as allocated even though MSF
said that people are being treated for
trauma and things along that we
understand that something happened and
we understand people who are treated for
trauma but there's a big difference
between that and some of the allegations
that were but doesn't that call for an
international investigation of some
sorts well there were as I understand it
inadequate information to to proceed
along those lines Vice News confirmed
that the UN sent in staff back to the
duty hour ton area two weeks after it
submitted its initial report to collect
additional information what they found
corroborated the initial findings that
pointed to alleged mass atrocities the
UN and others were trying to make up for
a disastrous moral failure in Sri Lanka
and saw Myanmar
I made a culpa that if they got me am i
right
it could absolve them from the sins in
Sri Lanka there is a real desire to get
a right moon but the desire to get it
right
also preventive from people from looking
at reality this culture of we need to
get it right and if we challenge the
government too much it could ruin that
relationship but also challenge our good
news story that we've been telling
ourselves and telling the world the
government that had that had just turned
the corner was now perhaps complicit and
crimes against humanity we were in the
narrative it would ruin the narrative
yeah absolutely and that narrative was
too valuable to be tarnished
the good news narrative of Myanmar got a
huge boost on March 30th when on song su
Chi and her National League for
Democracy party were sworn into office
assuring in a new era there's a lot of
hope that reforms will continue as the
country further transitions to democracy
more hinges in the camps themselves told
us that they think things will change
for the better with the NLD now in power
he's a known felon at Miraval
Alicia's ania ania a party NLD an
internal kuku developing a new channel
Usain tomorrow Minelli go songs eternity
no Linda senior but the reality is that
little has been done or even proposed
with regard to the real hindrance great
things are happening in Myanmar but
we're kind stay is a festering wound on
that progress the newly elected NLD has
said that the situation in Rakhine State
is not a priority even on song sushi a
Nobel Peace Prize winner and a darling
of the international community has been
mostly silent when it comes to speaking
up for the rehén job there is evidence
that they have yes Muslims have ended
how Muslims have been targeted but also
but this have been subjected to violence
but there's fear on both side and so it
is just fear here on both sides you
would accept though that
scale of the suffering is not equal on
both sides there is something like a
hundred and forty thousand Burmese
Muslims displaced from their homes and
living in camps they're the ones who are
bearing the brunt of this violence I
think there are many many Buddhists who
have also left the country for various
reasons and there are many of us who are
in refugee camps you hear about this
positive relationship now that the US
has with Myanmar that the UK has an AMR
and it seems like there's this out in
the open ethnic cleansing that's
happening I mean while it doesn't seem
like much is being done some people have
essentially been intoxicated by this
romantic narrative that Democratic
Change is sweeping through the country
and that the situation will necessarily
turn out great for all populations in
Myanmar and I think part of the reason
why the international community has not
done more is because there are certain
political and economic incentives to not
having these inconvenient conversations
with senior government officials and for
the international community to know
what's happening and not do anything
this is essentially the hallmark of
complicity
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