REST IN ‘PEACE’
MYANMAR SAYS CHINA ENDORSES CRACKDOWN ON ROHINGYA, UN BRANDS CRACKDOWN ‘ETHNIC CLEANSING’
Nearly three weeks into a mass exodus of Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar, thousands were still flooding across the border yesterday in search of help and safety in teeming refugee settlements in Bangladesh.
The crisis has drawn global condemnation, with UN officials demanding that Myanmar halt what they described as a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Muslim minority in Rakhine state.
Those who arrived on Wednesday in wooden boats to beaches near Shah Puri Dwip fishing village described ongoing violence on the Myanmar side, where smoke could be seen billowing from a burning village — suggesting more Rohingya homes had been set alight. One Rohingya man said his village of Rashidong had been attacked by Myanmar soldiers and police.
“When military and police surrounded our village and attacked us with rocket launchers to set fire, we got away from our village and fled away to any direction we could manage,” Abdul Goffar said.
Refugee camps packed
Meanwhile, aid agencies were struggling to provide aid to everyone in need.
Scenes of panic erupted yesterday along roadsides where local volunteers were distributing food, water and other supplies haphazardly from parked vehicles. Local officials shouted through bullhorns for volunteers to coordinate their efforts with aid agencies to avoid spreading chaos.
“There are acute shortages of everything, most critically shelter, food and clean water,” Unicef’s country representative Edouard Beigbeder said.
The UN children’s agency says it needs $7.3 million (Dh26.81 million) to help just the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children now at high risk of contracting waterborne diseases. China endorses Myanmar’s offensive against Rohingya Muslim insurgents, Myanmar state media said yesterday, as the UN secretarygeneral described the operation, forcing nearly 400,000 people to flee to Bangladesh, as “ethnic cleansing”.
The Myanmar military that the offensive in the state of Rakhine was triggered by a series of guerrilla attacks on Aug. 25 on security posts and an army camp in which about a dozen people were killed.
“The stance of China regarding the terrorist attacks in Rakhine is clear, it is just an internal affair,” the state-run Global
New Light of Myanmar newspaper yesterday quoted China’s ambassador, Hong Liang, as telling top government officials.
“The counter-attacks of Myanmar security forces against extremist terrorists and the government’s undertakings to provide assistance to the people are strongly welcomed.”
But at the UN, China set a different tone, joining a UN Security Council expression of concern about reports of excessive violence and calling for immediate steps to end it.