Ceasefire called for Rohingya to receive aid

ROHINGYA militants, who sparked an army crackdown in Myanmar that has seen nearly 300 000 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh, yesterday declared a unilateral ceasefire to allow aid to reach the increasingly desperate fugitives.

The United Nations said 294 000 bedraggled and exhausted Rohingya refugees had arrived in Bangladesh since the militants’ attacks on Myanmar security forces in Rakhine state on August 25 sparked a major military backlash.

Tens of thousands more are believed to be on the move inside Rakhine after more than a fortnight without shelter, food and water.

Three Rohingya are reported to have been killed by a mine near the border allegedly laid by Myanmar security forces to stop the fugitives returning.

Mainly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognise its Muslim Rohingya community, labelling them as “Bengalis” – illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

A further 27 000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, as well as Hindus, have also fled violence that has gripped the northern part of the state.

“The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations,” the group said in a statement on its official Twitter account.

It urged “all humanitarian actors” to resume aid delivery to all victims of humanitarian crisis irrespective of ethnic or religious background during the one-month ceasefire until October 9.

Myanmar’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest when the country was a military dictatorship, is now its de facto leader with the title of State Counsellor.

She has faced criticism for failing to condemn the violence, leaving her global reputation in tatters.

Rights groups, activists – including many who campaigned for her in the past – and her fellow Nobel laureates Malala Yousafzai and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have condemned her.

In a letter Tutu told his “dearly beloved younger sister” that “the images we are seeing of the suffering of the Rohingya fill us with pain and dread”. “It is incongruous for a symbol of righteousness to lead such a country; it is adding to our pain,” he added. — AFP