No choice but to accept foreign aid, says Thein Sein

NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar has no choice but to accept foreign aid for Muslims hit by recent sectarian violence or it will face an international backlash, President Thein Sein said.

His comments follow a series of protests by Buddhists in Myanmar against efforts by a world Islamic body to help Muslims affected by the violence in the state of Rakhine.

Dozens were killed in the Buddhist-Muslim clashes and tens of thousands displaced on both sides.

“Weneed humanitarian assistance. If we reject the humanitarian assistance, the international community will not accept us,” Thein Sein said in his first domestic press conference since taking office 18 months ago.

“We have to feed the people. It costs US$10,000 (RM30,505) a day,” he said of the Rakhine camps.

“Our government cannot afford it. We are not in a situation to feed the people in the camps with the help of ordinary citizens so we have to accept humanitarian assistance from the international community. If we do not accept the assistance they will say we are not human.”

More than 50,000 Muslims, mainly Rohingya, are housed in several camps in Rakhine and unable to go home.

Myanmar’s 800,000 Rohingya, described by the United Nations as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities, are seen by the government and many Myanmarese as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Thein Sein has blocked an attempt by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to open an office in Myanmar to help the displaced, after thousands of monks held protests in two major cities last week. — AFP