A former UK ambassador to Myanmar has been arrested, in accordance with two folks aware of the state of affairs, because the nation marks the fifth anniversary of the navy’s crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority that has drawn accusations of genocide.
Vicky Bowman, the UK’s envoy to Myanmar from 2002 to 2006, and her husband, artist and former political prisoner Htein Lin, had been detained by the navy regime, which seized energy in a coup in February final yr.
The 2 had been taken to Yangon’s Insein jail, the folks mentioned. Bowman is predicted to be charged with violating Myanmar’s Immigration Act, in accordance with native media.
“We’re involved by the arrest of a British lady in Myanmar,” the Overseas, Commonwealth and Growth Workplace mentioned in an announcement on Thursday. “We’re involved with the native authorities and are offering consular help.”
Bowman is the director of the Myanmar Centre for Accountable Enterprise, a non-governmental organisation that advises native enterprises on anti-corruption, social and environmental practices. She beforehand labored with miner Rio Tinto on transparency and sustainability points.
Information of the arrests emerged on the fifth anniversary of a violent crackdown by Myanmar’s navy, referred to as the Tatmadaw, towards the Muslim Rohingya minority within the western Rakhine state.
The Overseas Workplace mentioned on Wednesday that the UK would “intervene” in a case filed by The Gambia on the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice in The Hague in 2019 accusing the Tatmadaw of “genocidal acts”. It additionally unveiled an extra spherical of sanctions towards military-linked corporations.
“The UK has been clear that what occurred to the Rohingya was ethnic cleaning and stays dedicated to taking motion to cease the brutality of the Myanmar Armed Forces and maintain them to account,” the FCDO mentioned in an announcement.
An estimated 10,000 folks had been killed and 730,000 displaced into neighbouring Bangladesh, in accordance with a UN fact-finding mission, through the months-long assault that included sexual violence, village burnings and extrajudicial killings. The UN inquiry discovered the navy’s conduct amounted to “each warfare crimes and crimes towards humanity”.
Final month, the ICJ dominated that the case might proceed, quashing Myanmar’s objections over its jurisdiction. A separate case has been opened towards the Tatmadaw in Argentina.
Peter Vowles, the UK’s present ambassador to Myanmar, was expelled from the nation final month.
