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UN: Internet Blackout in Western Myanmar May Be Hiding Human Rights Abuses

VOANews

   The United Nations special human rights investigator for Myanmar says
   the military may be carrying out "gross human rights violations" in
   western Myanmar under the cover of an Internet blackout.

   Yanghee Lee issued a statement Monday to the U.N. Human Rights Council
   that mobile Internet service has been blacked out in nine townships
   across Rakhine and neighboring Chin states, where the military has been
   battling fighters with the rebel Arakan Army since late last year.
   Lee said she heard the military was conducting "clearance operations"
   in the region, which could be cover for "committing gross human rights
   violations against the civilian population."

   "I fear for all civilians there," Lee wrote in her statement.

   Telecommunications operator Telenor Group said it was ordered to
   shutdown mobile service in western Myanmar by the Ministry of Transport
   and Communications because the Internet was being used to "coordinate
   illegal activities."

   More than 35,000 people have been displaced in fighting between the
   military and the Arakan Army, a group made up of ethnic Rakhine
   Buddhists seeking greater autonomy for the state.

   The U.N. has accused Myanmar's military of carrying out numerous
   atrocities against Rakhine state's ethnic Rohingya Muslims "with
   genocidal intent" in August 2017.

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