US asks Myanmar to ensure security in Rakhine

Expects Dhaka to permit international NGOs to continue providing humanitarian assistance to Rohingyas

DHAKA: The United States reiterated its call on Friday asking Myanmar to take effective steps to ensure security in its troubled western Rakhine state and urged Dhaka to soften its stance on allowing Rohingyas fleeing their home to evade the sectarian clashes at home.

“Ensure that actions are taken to maintain calm, restore security and stability according to international standards, and to hold those responsible for the violence fully accountable under just and transparent procedures according to the rule of law,” visiting US Undersecretary of State María Otero told a press briefing at southeastern Cox’s Bazar bordering Myanmar.

She said Washington continued to monitor the tensions and inter-communal violence between majority Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims there and “consistently” urged “Burma [Myanmar]” to enable unhindered humanitarian access across Rakhine State and to ensure the provision of security as the United Nations and other non-governmental humanitarian organisations implement assistance to all persons in need.

“We also urge . . . Bangladesh to respect the principle of non-refoulement, as the persons fleeing the violence in Burma may be refugees or have protection needs,” Otero said reiterating the US call on Bangladesh authorities.

She expected Dhaka to permit international NGOs to continue providing humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya, other vulnerable individuals fleeing the violence in Rakhine.

Otero’s comments came as she along with several US state department officials including US ambassador in Dhaka Dan Mozena visited one of the makeshift Rohingya camps at Kutupalang and talked to the registered and unregistered residents of the facility and a foreign-aided hospital for Rohingyas.

The US delegation also held talks with local administrative officials and public representatives. During the visit the Rohingyas staged a demonstration carrying banners and placards highlighting their problems.

The US comments came a day after Myanmar’s pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi described the sectarian violence in Rakhine as a “huge international tragedy” but declined to speak out for Rohingyas “as violence has been committed by both sides” while she wanted to “promote reconciliation” after the recent bloodshed.

“Most people seem to think there is only one country involved in this border issue,” she continued. There are two countries. There is Bangladesh on one side and Burma [Myanmar] on the other, and the security of the border surely is the responsibility of both countries,” said the Nobel Laureate in an interview with an Indian television as she was on a visit to India.

Suu Kyi, however, earlier visibly caused disappointment among international supporters for her muted response to violence.

Otero, too, called the Rohingya issue a “complex one” with a strong international dimension saying it required a concerted effort by affected countries in the region.

“We stand ready to assist Burma, Bangladesh and other countries in the region affected by Rohingya displacement to reach a comprehensive, sustainable, and just solution to their plight,” she said.

The United States earlier called on all countries in the region to open their borders to Rohingya boatpeople — many of whom are fleeing the violence by taking to the high seas while Bangladesh tightened its border with Myanmar declining to accept a fresh Rohingya influx saying it was already overburdened with thousands of them for decades.

The Rohingya, who make up the vast majority of those displaced in the fighting, are described by the UN as among the world’s most persecuted minorities, and are not officially recognised as citizens in Myanmar since 1982.

The UN has called on all countries in the region to open their borders to Rohingya boatpeople in the wake of recent fatal tragedies.

Bangladesh has declined to allow a fresh influx of Rohingyas saying it was already over-burdened with some 400,000 of them for years as they fled their country during the past junta rule in Myanmar. w

According to the UNHCR around one million Rohingya are now thought to live outside Myanmar, but they have not been welcomed by a third country while Bangladesh has turned back Rohingya boats arriving on its shores since the outbreak of the recent unrest.

Bangladesh has been insisting the international community focus their efforts to end sectarian violence in neighbouring Myanmar as international pressures apparently mounted on Dhaka to open borders for refugees.

“I’ll request the international community to call upon the Myanmar government to end its internal mayhem, if they sincerely want to resolve the crisis,” the Bangladesh foreign minister said in a parliamentary statement last month.

Some 260,000 Muslim refugees belonging to the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority group fled their country to take refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh amid reported repression by the then Myanmar junta in 1991 while the exodus took place on a massive scale in two subsequent phases.

The Myanmar authorities agreed to take back its nationals under a UNHCR-brokered agreement in mid-1992 though some of the refugees repatriated on earlier occasions had sneaked back into Bangladesh.Bangladesh still hosts 25,000 documented Myanmar refugees and their 4,000 children in Cox’s Bazar district, but an undocumented number of Myanmar nationals who have fled into Bangladesh since 1991 is estimated to be as high as half a million.
Source:Here