A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Friday, July 14, 2017
Burma vows ‘no restrictions’, escorts media to restive Rakhine
A Rohingya refugee woman walks on the muddy path as she carries a child at the Kutupalang Makeshift Refugee Camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, July 8, 2017. Pic: Reuters
A Rohingya refugee woman walks on the muddy path as she carries a child at the Kutupalang Makeshift Refugee Camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, July 8, 2017. Pic: Reuters
BURMA pledged
on Wednesday “no restrictions” on journalists visiting the troubled
state of Rakhine this week, in the first official trip to include
foreign reporters to mostly Rohingya Muslim villages affected by
violence since October.
Eighteen Burmese nationals and foreigners representing international media, including Reuters,
arrived in the state capital of Sittwe on Wednesday ahead of a
government-escorted visit to the northern areas of Buthidaung and
Maungdaw, where most residents are stateless Rohingyas.
“There are no restrictions regarding the areas that you can report
from,” said Thet Swe, a director at the Ministry of Information’s News
and Periodicals Enterprise.
“We didn’t arrange any ‘for show’ places for news reporting,” he said.
Last year, Burma‘s
army unleashed a crackdown in the area after Rohingya militants
attacked posts near the Bangladesh border, killing nine police officers.
Some 75,000 people fled across the nearby border to Bangladesh,
according to the United Nations, which has documented allegations of
gang rape, torture, arson and killings by security forces.
Burma’s government, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has denied
most of the allegations, and has denied entry to a UN fact-finding
mission tasked with looking into the allegations.
The government has blocked independent journalists and human rights
monitors from going to the area in the far north of the state for the
past nine months.
Suu Kyi has said a UN fact-finding mission would only heighten tension in the region. Many in Buddhist-majority Burma, see the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Burmese officials
say a domestic investigation, led by Vice President Myint Swe – a
former lieutenant general in the army – and a commission headed for
former UN chief Kofi Annan – which is not mandated to investigate human
rights abuses – are the appropriate ways to address problems in Rakhine
State.
Security concerns
Annan recommended in March that authorities “provide full and regular
access for domestic and international media to all areas affected by
recent violence”.
Reporters on the visit to the northern areas would be provided security
by Burma’s paramilitary Border Guard Police force, Thet Swe said.
Although access would not be restricted, he said, reporters should stay
close to officials during visits to villages for their own security.
A detailed itinerary for the five-day trip was provided to reporters on Wednesday.
The itinerary does not include visits to the villages at the centre of a two-week offensive in mid-November, in which Reuters has documented numerous allegations of abuses by troops following a clash with Rohingya militants.
However, Thet Swe said, the plan was “not fixed” and would be subject to
changes due to the weather and security concerns. He invited reporters
to suggest additional places they want to visit.
Reporters would be taken to the village of Tin May, where security
forces killed two suspected militants and arrested one after they
detonated a bomb on Sunday, according to an announcement from Suu Kyi’s
office.
While Burma has
denied entry to a UN fact-finding mission, a UN special rapporteur on
human rights, Yanghee Lee, is visiting Rakhine State this week.
Although she is not expected to visit the northern areas near the border
with Bangladesh, she is due to meet some of the people displaced in
violence since 2012.
About 120,000 Rohingya have lived in “internally displaced persons”
camps in Rakhine State, dependent of international aid, since communal
widespread violence that year. – Reuters