Myanmar govt cancels first UN trip to Rakhine
Myanmar authorities have cancelled the planned visit of UN representatives to Rakhine State that has seen widespread violence forcing over 500,000 Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh.
This would have been the first UN visit to the area after the violence broke out on August 25.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The United Nations has been demanding access to Rakhine since UN humanitarian organisations were forced to pull out of the Myanmar state.
BBC quoted a UN spokesman in Yangon as saying that the visit had been cancelled, but no reason was provided for the decision.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric had earlier said the trip organised by the Myanmar government possibly for Thursday had been scheduled, AFP reported.
"We hope above all that it is a first step towards much freer and wider access to the area," he had said at his daily news briefing. He also had said the chiefs of UN agencies would take part in the trip.
The cancellation of the visit comes despite the global outcry against Myanmar's security forces' atrocities against the Rohingyas, while the UN termed it "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
Human Rights Watch came up with evidences that more than 200 Rohingya villages in Rakhine State were burned down, while women were raped. It termed the violence crimes against humanity.
A UN expert on human rights situation on Myanmar said around 1,000 people, mostly Rohingyas, might have been killed in Rakhine.
The number of Rohingyas who have fled to Bangladesh since violence broke out in Myanmar's Rakhine state on August 25 has exceeded half a million, the United Nations said yesterday.
The new figure of 5,01,800 -- up from around 480,000 -- was due mainly to the counting of refugees not previously included in the tally rather than a dramatic increase in arrivals.
UN CONCERNED OVER SEXUAL VIOLENCE
UN Migration Agency Director General William Lacy Swing said he is seriously concerned about the increasing reports of Rohingyas facing sexual and gender-based violence.
"Sexual and gender-based violence is a severe, life-threatening public health and human rights abuse and I am deeply shocked and concerned by reports we are receiving from new arrivals in Cox's Bazar," he said in a statement yesterday.
"Particularly women and girls, but also men and boys, have been targeted for and are at risk of further exploitation, violence and abuse simply because of their gender, age and status in society."
Gender-based violence has been recorded in needs assessments, fact finding missions and through the provision of life-saving services, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which is providing urgent medical and psychological support to survivors of sexual violence.
Rape, sexual assault, domestic violence and child marriage, among other forms of gender-based violence, have been identified and require immediate responses from humanitarian actors, Lacy Swing said.
Although the known number most likely only represents a small portion of actual cases, IOM doctors have treated dozens of women since August, who have suffered violent sexual assault.
Since October 2016, IOM has treated or received reports from hundreds of women and some men.
"IOM is supporting survivors but I cannot emphasize enough that attempting to understand the scale of gender-based violence through known case numbers alone is impossible,"
UN clinicians treating the Rohingyas in recent weeks said they have seen dozens of women with injuries consistent with violent sexual attacks.
The medics' accounts, backed in some cases by medical notes reviewed by Reuters, lend weight to repeated allegations, ranging from molestation to gang rape, levelled by women from the stateless minority group against Myanmar's armed forces.
RACE ROW HAMPERS ROHINGYA REGISTRATION
Meanwhile, many Rohingyas in Bangladesh are now refusing to register with authorities as repatriation talk grows louder, saying their identity as an ethnic group is not recognised on the forms.
The Bangladesh military began registering the new arrivals more than two weeks ago, but has so far only completed the process for around 24,000.
Major Kabir Kibria, coordinator for the registration centres, said the refugees were objecting to the language on the form, which refers to them simply as Myanmar nationals.
"According to our information, they want to have the name 'Rohingya' in their cards beside their citizenship status," he told AFP.
"The government decision is to term them as only Myanmar citizen."
On official said the government's decision not to include the refugees' ethnicity was in line with international norms.
"Many of their community leaders are spreading false information that the card wouldn't work without 'proper' identification," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
'NEED A LONG-TERM PLAN'
The Rohingyas who have entered Bangladesh since August are not likely to leave soon, said UN refugee agency Chief Filippo Grandi, calling for longer-term plans to manage the influx.
He said current makeshift camps set up "a recipe for disaster", with overcrowding and unhygienic conditions creating a breeding ground for "possible epidemics."
"The important thing is to get people in places where they can be assisted more easily," Grandi told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday.
"It is most likely that the return will take time, if it happens, if the violence stops. It will be important also to find in the medium term suitable solutions for the people that are in Bangladesh."
"The first challenge is to get people out of the mud and the despair which they are finding themselves in", he added.
Grandi said he was in talks with Dhaka about forming a "technical committee" with the UN to look at options for longer-term Rohingya settlements.
"There are in reality many different options that the Bangladesh government is studying, and understandably they are not easy", he said.
NAVY TO BUILD CAMP
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan yesterday said the Bangladesh Navy was given the responsibility to develop a Rohingya refugee camp with education, health and residential facilities at Bhashan Char of Noakhali.
He, however, said everything was at the planning stage.
The minister was talking to reporters while visiting Bhashan Char.
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