Rights groups urge access to Rakhine
JAKARTA: Rights groups urged Myanmar to allow humanitarian access to a troubled Muslim-majority region following the latest violence that has prevented aid agencies from delivering food and medicines.
Troops have been sweeping northern Rakhine state for more than a week, hunting an estimated 400 fighters who officials believe are members of the mostly stateless Rohingya Muslim community acting with the support of Islamists abroad.
The Myanmar military has declared the area an “operation zone” and has tightly controlled the flow of information since insurgents seized dozens of weapons in raids on border posts on Oct 9, in which nine police officers were killed.
UN agencies have said they have no access to the affected areas to assess humanitarian needs after the attacks.
Human rights groups said Myanmar, also known as Burma, must ensure humanitarian aid can reach those in need.
“The Burmese government has a responsibility to search for and arrest those who attacked the border posts,” New York-based Human Rights Watch’s Asia director Brad Adams said in a statement yesterday.
“But it is required to do so in a manner that respects human rights, ensures that the area’s people get the aid they need and allows journalists and rights monitors into the area.”
Amnesty International said the latest violence “aggravated what was already a serious humanitarian situation in the country”.
“The Myanmar authorities must immediately lift restrictions preventing the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies from reaching people in need,” its Southeast Asia and the Pacific director Rafendi Djamin said.
The UN World Food Programme said it remains unable to access 50,000 people in need of food aid in Maungdaw township, which has been at the centre of the violence, but it hopes to regain access to nearby Buthidaung township by next week.
“After several days with no access to these areas, WFP hopes to be able to resume its regular support for some 37,000 people by next week,” regional spokeswoman Silke Buhr said. “This includes distributions of cash for vulnerable households and nutrient-dense supplementary food for pregnant women and young children.”
At least 30 suspected militants and five military personnel have been killed in clashes since the Oct 9 raids.
Nearly 120,000 people, mostly Rohingya, were already displaced in Rakhine after an outbreak of communal violence in 2012. Thousands more were believed to have been displaced in the latest violence. Meanwhile, the number dead in a ferry sinking has reached 73, authorities said yesterday. The ferry sank early on Saturday, about 137km northwest of Mandalay.
“We were able to salvage the sunken ferry yesterday and we don’t expect to find any more bodies, so we’ve suspended the official rescue operation,” said Ko Ko Naing, an official of Myanmar’s social welfare ministry.
He said 73 bodies, among them 54 women, 14 men and 5 whose gender had yet to be identified, had been found, in addition to the 159 passengers rescued alive.
The ferry had been laden with at least 300 passengers when it sank, exceeding its official capacity of 120, Kyaw Htay Lwin, a regional lawmaker said, citing witnesses.
President Htin Kyaw expressed “condolences for the dead, offering assistance to the bereaved families and announcing action against those responsible after a systematic probe”, in a statement published by state-owned media.