UN Facilitated Transport of Burma Junta Officials to Bangladesh, Leaked Email Reveals

Rohingya refugees are seen on a Bangladesh navy ship as they are relocated to Bhashan Char Island in the Bay of Bengal, in Chittagong, on Jan. 29, 2021. Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via Getty Images

A leaked email obtained by the Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP) has revealed that United Nations boats have been used to transport Burmese military junta officials to Bangladesh, with U.N. markings removed from the boats beforehand.

The leaked email, which was seen by The Epoch Times, was sent by U.N. resident coordinator in Burma (also known as Myanmar) Ramanathan Balakrishnan to members of the U.N. country team on March 16.

In the email, Balakrishnan said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the U.N. World Food Program “provided their boats to the Myanmar repatriation pilot mission for its trip from Mangudaw to Teknaf” on March 15 after getting “a very firm request” from the junta.

The request was made by junta authorities in Mangudaw township of Rakhine State “36 hours before the planned trip,” and all U.N. markings were removed from all boats, he said.

No weapons or armed escort were present during the journey, the U.N. official added.

Balakrishnan also clarified that UNHCR was “not involved in the bilateral discussion between the government of Bangladesh and the de facto Myanmar authorities leading up to this current visit.”

He said that while the U.N. recognizes that every refugee has the right to return to their home country, UNHCR has assessed that conditions in Rakhine State “are currently not conducive to the safe and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees.”

UN Confirms Support to Myanmar Delegation

The move came as Burma’s military junta and Bangladesh’s government are working on a pilot project, mediated by the Chinese communist regime, to repatriate Rohingya refugees from the border district of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh to Burma.

Rohingya refugees watch ICJ proceedings at a restaurant in a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Dec. 12, 2019. Allison Joyce/Getty Images

A Bangladeshi official told Reuters last week that about 1,140 Rohingya refugees, including some newborn babies, will be repatriated to Burma through the pilot project. It remains unclear when the project will commence.

In a statement on Sunday, UNHCR said that it “supports efforts that could lead to the verification of all refugees and pave the way for eventual return.”

“This most recently included providing logistical support to members of the Myanmar delegation to cross into Bangladesh for the technical verification process,” the agency stated.

‘Seriously Compromises UN Neutrality’

The MAP, a London-based NGO building criminal cases against members of the Burma security forces, has condemned the U.N. support of the repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Burma.

MAP’s Director Chris Gunness said the U.N. participated in the pilot project despite having assessed that the conditions in Burma are not safe enough for Rohingya refugees to return.

Gunness said the U.N. support in the repatriation of Rohingya refugees was “part of a PR [public relations] stunt, to show to the world that planned elections will be free and fair and supported by the people of Myanmar.”

“For the UN to be supporting this blatant piece of junta propaganda in advance of sham elections brings the UN’s involvement in the genocide of the Rohingya to a new low,” he said in a statement.

Gunness said removing U.N. markings from the boats “seriously compromises the U.N.’s neutrality” and “jeopardizes aid deliveries across the country and puts at risk the lives of humanitarian workers.”

“How can anyone trust the U.N. now that it has admitted to disguising its vehicles in order to transport junta officials?” he said.

US Accuses Burma Junta of Committing Genocide

The Rohingya have been denied citizenship in Burma since a Burmese citizenship law was enacted in 1982. The U.N. said more than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh owing to a military clampdown in 2017.

In March last year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Burmese military had committed genocide against the Rohingya in a “widespread and systematic” manner, with clear evidence of intent to destroy the minority group in whole or in part.

Ten Rohingya men with their hands bound kneel as members of Burmese security forces stand guard in Inn Din village, Sept. 2, 2017. Pictures reportedly later emerged of the same men’s bodies in a shallow grave, having been hacked and shot to death. File Photo/Reuters

Citing a 2018 State Department report that surveyed more than 1,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, Blinken said that the findings demonstrate that the Burmese military’s violence against the Rohingya “were not isolated cases.”

Three-quarters of those surveyed claimed to have witnessed the military kill someone and more than half witnessed acts of sexual violence. One in five witnessed a mass-casualty event, killing or injuring more than 100 people in a single incident.

“For those who did not realize it before the coup, the brutal violence that has followed has made clear that there is no one the Burmese military won’t come for. No one is safe from atrocities under its rule,” the top U.S. diplomat said.

In February 2021, the military junta ousted an elected civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup, sparking widespread anti-coup protests in Burma. Over 1,100 civilians have been killed, and more than a quarter of a million people have been displaced since the military took power, according to the U.N.