US, OIC officials visit riot-hit Rakhine

Led by the US Department of State Assistant Secretary Joseph Y Yun, the team was composed of 11 delegates, including US Ambassador to Myanmar Derek J Mitchell, seven officials from the Ministry for Progress of Border Areas and Development Affairs led by its minister, General Thein Htay. 

The fact-finding mission was intended to gather evidence, verify “inaccurate” reports by the foreign media, and to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees. The team visited the Shwezeti refugee camp of Rakhine nationals, and the Mingan, Thetkalpyin and Bawduba refugee camps of the Bengalis. The government showed the team photos documenting the sectarian violence. 

Thein said the Union government, in collaboration with the Rakhine State government, has provided food and shelter to the refugees. But he also said the government has yet to fully address the situation in Rakhine State by laying down short-term and long-term projects.

Dozens died and thousands were displaced in this northern state of Myanmar following recent clashes between the Muslim minority group, the Rohingya, and the Buddhist majority group, the ethnic Rakhine. 

Meanwhile, members of an influential Islamic body also Rakhine state, a government official said yesterday, to survey the fallout from deadly sectarian unrest.

A delegation from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) led by the group’s representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Ufuk Gokcen, arrived in the western region on Sunday, an official in the state capital Sittwe said.

“They met the union border affairs minister and Rakhine chief minister here and also visited some refugee camps and made donations,” he said, adding that the group concluded their visit on Monday.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar forces of opening fire on stateless Rohingya Muslims during the violence – an accusation denied by the government – prompting concern across the Islamic world.

At a summit last month in the Saudi Arabian holy city of Mecca, the 57-member OIC decided to take its concerns over the treatment of the group to the UN.

It also condemned “the continued recourse to violence by the Myanmar authorities against the members of this minority and their refusal to recognise their right to citizenship”.

Myanmar in August agreed to allow the OIC to provide aid to the region, on the condition it agreed to assist all communities in the area.

According to a report in the English language state newspaper the New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday, the delegation had “a cordial discussion on [the] real situation that broke out in Rakhine State”, as well as rehabilitation and sustainable development.

Hundreds of homes were razed in the unrest and an estimated 70,000 people, the majority of them Rohingya, were left displaced in government-run camps and shelters.