Turkey prepared to help refugees in Arakan State

Tents set up for internally displaced people on the side of the road in Thet Kel Pyin camp, Rakhine state, Burma. Photo: OCHA

Sittwe (Mizzima) – A seven-person delegation led by Turkish Ambassador to Burma Murat Yavuz Ates visited Sittwe [Sittway] and met with the Arakan [Rakhine] State government last week, while providing immediate aid to displaced 

persons in government camps.

The ambassador met with Arakan State Chief Minister Hla Maung Tin and also visited Mingan village, Kyaukphyu Township, and provided medicine and bags of rice to Arakanese refugees. The delegation also provided 2,228 bags of rice to refugees in Thakkaypyin village in Sittwe Township.

Recent weeks have seen a wave of international officials visiting Rakhine State to access the situation and to determine the areas needs.

A delegation from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), led by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, visited the Bawduba Rohingya refugee camp in Sittwe, a Muslim Quarter [Aung Mingala] and the Arakanese refugee camp in Sutaungpyace Temple on Sept. 10.

On Sept. 8, a 11-person delegation led by the US Department of State Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Joe Yun, the US ambassador to Burma Derek Mitchell and UNHCR representative Hans ten Feld visited refugee camps in Maungdaw.

Officials said six houses and 122 temporary tents have been constructed for refugees in Mawyawaddy village in Maungdaw Township; 122 dwellings totaling 463 people were put up at a relief camp in the Alalthankyaw village; and 38 houses and 79 temporary tents had been built for refugees in Shweyinaye village, state-run newspapers reported on Tuesday.

Seventy-six households totaling 266 people have been constructed in the “4-mile” camp and Parahita camp in Maungdaw, said reports.

Source

US sanction policy not affected by Rohingya issue: US ambassador

Source : Mizzima News

The community violence in western Burma was surprising, but it hasn’t affected Washington’s views on easing sanctions, the US Ambassador to Burma said in a story in The Wall Street Journal on Friday.

Derek Mitchell speaks at the US embassy in Rangoon on July 20, 2012. Photo: Mizzima

“I have to say it did surprise us to the degree that there would be violence so quickly, that it would spread so terribly,” said newly appointed Ambassador Derek Mitchell. “I don’t think it affects our view on sanctions. It just means we have an even more complex challenge ahead of us in the country.”

Mitchell said much of the Rohingya conflict comes from everyday citizens, many of who would deny the Rohingyas the right to live in the country.

“It’s unfortunate when you see the depths of intolerance and discrimination….among citizens,” Mitchell said—including “people who otherwise you would think of as progressive and who have fought so long for civil rights.”

He said the community violence “had to do with the deep-seated intolerance that seemed to be within the society writ large. So I think that’s where the deep disappointment came.”

He told the newspaper that the US understands the feelings among Buddhists in western Burma that they, too, have also suffered in recent years, and that international organizations have focused too much on Rohingya concerns.

But he said the Rohingyas “are stateless."

"They have nowhere to turn," he said. "And it is not going to be lost on the international community.”

The Burmese government recently named a 27-member investigation commission that included former student activists, representatives from political parties and government critics who spent time in jail as political prisoners. 

The commission is on a two-day trip to Rakhine State at this time and is expected to have a report finished by late September.