Arakanese in US protest against UNHCHR chief’s statement on Rakhine

Lu Htet Naing, Narinjara News, 20 May 2024

The Arakanese community in the United States held a protest demonstration outside the UN office in New York on 19 May over the statement of  Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"The UNHCHR Volker Türk's in his statement  on 19 April showed his  favour to one group in Rakhine State, which  prompted the Arakanese-American community in the US to raise voices. Volker Türk's statement seemingly represented only one group's perspective. Due to this perceived bias, the Rakhine people here are compelled to join in the protest demonstration,” said U Thar Pwint, an Arakanese-American citizen, who led the protesters.

The protest program involved nearly 100 Rakhine individuals.

They displayed placards reading ‘Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, should resign for supporting terrorists’, ‘Stop discriminating against Arakanese (Rakhine) people’, ‘UN Human Rights Commissioner violates rules’, ‘Volker shows bias in  actions’, etc.

The  protesters argued that Volker Türk  provided inaccurate information in his statement distorting the reality on the ground and disseminating misinformation.

His statement at the UNHCR threatened the global existence of the Arakanese people and also neglected their rights to justice, liberation, peace, and fights against the Myanmar military dictators, stated U Thar Pwint..

Volker Türk's statement is an act of instigating common people to turn into military slaves and promoting terrorism among those aligned with the military regime.

The Arakanese-American assumed it as unfair and hence they urged the UN organizations to remain impartial and unbiased.

Mentionable is that on 19 April, Volker Türk issued a statement titled ‘Myanmar: Turk Sounds Alarms Amid Rising Tensions in Arakan’ where  he seemingly put biased views in  favour of Rohingyas, but against other ethnic groups in the Rakhine region.