Myanmar bars US official from conflict zone

Fleeing Rohingya Muslims watch from Bangladesh as homes burn across the border

Myanmar said yesterday a visiting US official would not be allowed to go to a region where violence has triggered an exodus of nearly 400,000 Rohingya Muslims that the United Nations has branded a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

The Rohingya have fled from western Rakhine state to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape a military offensive that has raised questions about Myanmar’s transition to civilian rule under the leadership of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Patrick Murphy will voice Washington’s concerns about the Rohingya and press for greater access to the conflict area for humanitarian workers, the State Department said.

Myanmar officials said he would meet government leaders in the capital, Naypyitaw, and attend an address to the nation by Suu Kyi on Tuesday. He would also visit Sittwe, the state capital, and meet the governor of Rakhine, the state government secretary, Tin Maung Swe, told Reuters, but the north of the state, where the conflict erupted on August 25, would be off limits.

“Not allowed,” Tin Maung Swe said, when asked if Murphy would be going to Maungdaw district, at the heart of the strife that began when Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army camp, killing a dozen people.

Fears have also been growing of a humanitarian crisis on the Myanmar side, but access for aid workers and reporters has been severely restricted. Myanmar insisted yesterday it was not barring aid workers but a government spokesman said authorities on the ground might have concerns over security.

Groups of fleeing Rohingya Muslims watched from inside Bangladesh yesterday as another of the homes in their abandoned village across the border in Myanmar went up in flames.

The villagers said they’d escaped days ago, crossing into Bangladesh at the border point of Tumbru. Flames could be seen only about 500 meters from the border fence.