UN aid chiefs to access Rakhine State for the first time

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Myanmar government to organise trip. The UN wants "freer and wider access to the area".

A Myanmar border guard police officer takes pictures at the remains of a burned house in Tin May village, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar July 13, 2017.
Reuters

A Myanmar border guard police officer takes pictures at the remains of a burned house in Tin May village, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar July 13, 2017.

Representatives of UN agencies will be permitted to visit the Rakhine state in Myanmar on Thursday for the first time since the start of a massive exodus of minority Rohingya Muslims.

The United Nations has been demanding access since its humanitarian organisations were forced to pull out of Rakhine when Myanmar's military launched operations against suspected Rohingya rebels in late August, causing over 480,000 people to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh.

"There will be a trip organised by the government, probably tomorrow, to Rakhine," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday.

"We hope above all that it is a first step toward much freer and wider access to the area," he said, adding the chiefs of UN agencies would take part in the trip.

The UN has drawn up a contingency plan to feed up to 700,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, and warned that those who fled will not be returning home soon.

"All the UN agencies together have now set a plan for a new influx of 700,000. We can cover if the new influx reaches 700,000," the World Food Programme's deputy chief in Bangladesh, Dipayan Bhattacharyya, said on Wednesday.

UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said that for those who have fled to Bangladesh, "return will take time, if it happens, if the violence stops."

Thursday's visit for the UN representatives will come on the same day that the UN Security Council meets on the situation in Myanmar.

Secretary General Antonio Guterres will address the UN Security Council during its open-door session.

But that's unlikely to lead to a resolution being adopted, as China and Russia have already said they support  Myanmar's actions. 

TRT World's Shamim Chowdhury has more.

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Mass graves of Hindu villagers

Myanmar's military, under fire for imposing a news blackout on the campaign around the city of Maungdaw in the country's west, on Wednesday organised a press tour in the Hindu village of Ye Baw Kyaw.

Mass graves containing 45 Hindu villagers were discovered in the area earlier this week, and the military has accused Rohingya rebels of carrying out the massacre.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) "categorically" denied that its members "perpetrated murder, sexual violence, or forcible recruitment" in the area.

The decomposing skeletal bodies remained laid out in rows on a grassy field outside Ye Baw Kyaw as distraught relatives wailed, according to witnesses.

Hindus who fled the area said that masked men stormed into their community and hacked victims to death with machetes before dumping them into freshly dug pits.

Myanmar's army has tried to control the narrative over the crisis, restricting press access to the conflict zone while it posts regular updates that blame Rohingya rebels for the bloodshed.

Government and military reports have also sought to highlight the suffering of other ethnic groups, such as Rakhine Buddhists and Hindus, swept up in the communal unrest.

Rival narratives

The latest violence has intensified long-running religious hatred and been complicated by a swirl of rival narratives from different ethnic groups.  

With accusations of "ethnic cleansing" being levelled at the UN General Assembly, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said last week she was "ready" to organise the return of Rohingya.

The 1.1million Rohingya, the world's largest stateless group, are treated as foreigners in Myanmar, whose population is 90 percent Buddhist.

The UN says nearly half a million Rohingya – 60 percent of them children – have fled for safety to Bangladesh in the face of an army campaign in northern Rakhine state that includes rape and the burning of villages after attacks carried out by suspected Rohingya rebels on police posts on August 25.

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