UN for calm after shots fired in Rohingya camp

YANGON: The UN has called for calm after several Rohingya were shot and wounded in a Rakhine state camp, in a raid linked to the failed escape of more than 100 of the stateless minority from the grim settlements.

Some 120,000 Rohingya have languished in displacement camps near Rakhine’s capital, Sittwe, since riots in 2012.

Their movement, access to healthcare, work and education is severely restricted in conditions decried as amounting to apartheid by Amnesty International.

Rohingya refugees who fled a military crackdown to Bangladesh refuse to return to Rakhine without equal rights, citizenship and safety — fearing similar long-term confinement if they do.

Villagers said that four Rohingya were shot and wounded as Myanmar police entered the Ah Nauk Ye camp in central Rakhine state’s Pauktaw township on Sunday morning.

In an e-mailed statement Knut Ostby, head of the UN office in Myanmar, called for “calm, nonviolence and restraint” in an area which can be accessed only with official permission — but is believed to suffer from some of the worst conditions in the

SOME 120,000 ROHINGYA HAVE LANGUISHED IN DISPLACEMENT CAMPS NEAR RAKHINE’S CAPITAL, SITTWE

displacement camps.

One witness said that officers were trying to arrest two Rohingya suspected of links with a boat carrying 106 Rohingya that was found last week off the coast of Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon.

The discovery fuelled speculation of a fresh exodus of Rohingya by boat.

The group, who told reporters they were trying to reach Malaysia, were taken back to Rakhine on Sunday by Myanmar’s navy.

Noor Hakim, an Ah Nauk Ye resident, said that the trouble started on Sunday soon after 20 police arrived and crowds gathered.

“I am not sure where the police shot but four people got injured and among them, one seriously,” he said.