BANGKOK: A UN envoy has warned that communal violence in western Myanmar poses a threat to the country's shift towards democracy and said discrimination against the minority Muslim Rohingya was behind the unrest.
A state of emergency is in place in Rakhine state where clashes have caused dozens of deaths and forced hundreds of people from both sides to flee their homes since Friday.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN's Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, urged the country's reformist government to tackle the "root cause" of discrimination against Muslim Rohingya living in the strife-hit region.
He added: "The underlying tensions that stem from discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities pose a threat to Myanmar's democratic transition and stability.
"I urge all sides to exercise restraint, respect the law and refrain from violence," he said in a statement released late Wednesday.
Decades of discrimination have left the Muslim Rohingya stateless, scattered around the globe and viewed by the United Nations as among the most persecuted minorities on the planet.
About 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar, according to the UN, mostly in Rakhine.
The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya to be foreigners, while many citizens see them as illegal immigrants and view them with hostility.
Rohingya are subject to forced labour, restrictions on freedom of movement, lack of land rights, education and public services, according to a UN refugee agency (UNHCR) report published in December.
The UN has evacuated most of its foreign staff from its main base in Rakhine.
But Vijay Nambiar, UN chief Ban Ki-moon's special adviser on Myanmar, flew into Rakhine on Thursday to see the situation.
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