Diplomats who toured Myanmar's Rakhine want access for aid

BANGKOK: A group of 20 foreign diplomats who visited Myanmar's Rakhine state, where half a million ethnic Rohingya Muslims fled recent violence, have urged the government to allow access by humanitarian groups and by a United Nations fact-finding mission to investigate allegations of human rights violations.

But the president's office spokesman, Zaw Htay, told The Associated Press today the government will stick by it's earlier decision to bar the UN mission. It has said the group, assembled after similar violence last October, is interfering in Myanmar's affairs.

The diplomats, taken yesterday on a guided government tour of the affected area, said in a joint statement that there is a dire need for humanitarian aid. The crisis in Rakhine has drawn international concern because of the exodus of more than 500,000 Rohingya to neighbouring Bangladesh in just a month's time. The violence began when the army retaliated for raids on government security posts on August 25 by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, an insurgent group.

Human rights groups charge that the army has abused and killed civilians and burned down thousands of homes. Rohingya are considered by many in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar to have poached land after immigrating illegally from Bangladesh. Advocates for the Rohingya insist many families have lived on the land for generations.

The diplomats' statement condemned the insurgents' initial attacks as well as the violence that followed it. "We saw villages which had been burned to the ground and emptied of inhabitants. The violence must stop," it said.

"The security forces have an obligation to protect all people in Rakhine without discrimination and to take measures to prevent acts of arson." They also said they encouraged the Myanmar government "to move quickly to enable the voluntary, dignified and safe return to their places of origin of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled to Bangladesh."

"We saw on our visit the dire humanitarian need. We call once more for unimpeded humanitarian access to northern Rakhine and resumption of life-saving services without discrimination throughout the state," they wrote. Representatives of UN agencies were also on yesterday's tour.

In a separate letter, the UN office in Myanmar said the visit "was a positive step and such visits, under appropriate conditions, could help in our efforts to explore potential areas where the UN could cooperate with the Myanmar authorities in alleviating the dire situation in northern Rakhine."