Myanmar minister visits Rohingya camp

KUTUPALONG/YANGON: Amyanmar minister on Wednesday toured one of the Bangladesh camps struggling to provide for some one million Rohingya Muslims, the first such visit since a Myanmar army crackdown sparked a massive refugee crisis.

Social welfare minister Win Myat Aye met with Rohingya leaders at the giant Kutupalong camp near the border city of Cox’s Bazar, where a group of refugees tried to stage a protest during his visit.

It is the first time a Myanmar cabinet member has visited the fetid and overcrowded camps since a military crackdown that began last August in response to a spate of insurgent attacks forced some 700,000 of the Muslim minority to flee across the border.

They added to the 300,000 Rohingya refugees already in Bangladesh after previous bouts of violence.

An official said a group of refugees were prevented from unfurling a banner detailing a list of demands from the Rohingya.

Win Myat Aye met with some 30 Rohingya community leaders and was briefed on the situation in the sprawling refugee camps by Bangladeshi and United Nations officials, he added.

The leaders from the displaced minority group handed a statement to the Myanmar minister saying “it was not safe for them to return”.

7 MYANMAR SOLDIERS SENTENCED OVER ROHINGYA KILLINGS

Seven soldiers in Myanmar were sentenced for their part in the extrajudicial killings of 10 Rohingya Muslim men, according to a Facebook post by the army chief late on Tuesday.

The bloody incident in Inn Din village in September is the only atrocity to which the military has admitted during its violent crackdown in Rakhine.the tribunal took place behind closed doors, ignoring international calls for an independent inquiry.