Diplomats call for access to Rakhine
After government tour of site, officials said they witnessed ‘dire humanitarian need’
BANGKOK— A group of 20 foreign diplomats who visited Burma’s Rakhine state, where half a million ethnic Rohingya Muslims have fled recent violence, has urged the government to allow access by humanitarian groups and by a United Nations factfinding mission to investigate allegations of human rights violations.
But a spokesperson for the presi- dent’s office, Zaw Htay, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the government will stick by its earlier decision to bar the UN mission. It has said the group, assembled after similar violence last October, is interfering in Burma’s affairs.
The diplomats, taken Monday on a guided government tour of the affected area, said in a statement there is a dire need for humanitarian aid.
The crisis in Rakhine has drawn international concern because of the exodus of more than 500,000 Rohingya to neighbouring Bangladesh in just a month’s time. The violence be- gan when the army retaliated for raids on government security posts on Aug. 25 by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, an insurgent group.
Human rights groups charge that the army has abused and killed civilians and burned down thousands of homes. Rohingya are considered by many in Buddhist-dominated Burma to have poached land after immigrating illegally from Bangladesh. Advocates for the Rohingya insist many families have lived on the land for generations.
The diplomats’ statement condemned the insurgents’ initial at- tacks as well as the violence that followed it. “We saw villages which had been burned to the ground and emptied of inhabitants. The violence must stop,” it said. “The security forces have an obligation to protect all people in Rakhine without discrimination and to take measures to prevent acts of arson . . .
“We saw on our visit the dire humanitarian need. We call once more for unimpeded humanitarian access to northern Rakhine and resumption of life-saving services without discrimination throughout the state.”