Newsdesk :
Armed Buddhist protesters in Myanmar threw petrol bombs to try to block a shipment of aid to Muslims in Rakhine state, where the United Nations has accused the military of ethnic cleansing, before police fired in the air to disperse them.
Hundreds of protesters were involved in the attempt to stop Red Cross workers loading a boat with relief supplies. The incident late on Wednesday reflected rising communal animosity, and came as US President Donald Trump called for a quick end to the violence that has raised concern about Myanmar’s transition from military rule.
The aid shipment was bound for the north of the Rakhine State where violence erupted
on Aug 25 sparked a military backlash.
The violence has sent more than 420,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh but many remain in Myanmar, hiding in fear and without food and other supplies, aid workers say.
Several hundred people tried to stop a boat being loaded with about 50 tonnes of aid at a dock in the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe, a government information office said. “People thought the aid was only for the Bengalis,” the secretary of the state government, Tin Maung Swe, told Reuters, using a term that Rohingya find offensive.
Protesters, some carrying sticks and metal bars, threw petrol bombs and about 200 police were forced to disperse them by shooting into the air, a witness and the government information office said.
The witness said he saw some injured people. Eight people were detained, the information office said. None of the aid workers were hurt, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
The spokeswoman, Maria Cecilia Goin, said the crowd had approached the boat to ask Red Cross workers what they were doing. “All emergency support done by the organisation and in the movement is done in a neutral and impartial manner,” she said, citing what the workers had told the crowd before authorities intervened.
Tension between majority Buddhists and Rohingya, most of whom are denied citizenship, has simmered for decades in Rakhine, but it has exploded in violence several times over the past few years, as old enmities surfaced with the end of decades of military rule.
Meanwhile, Myanmar’s vice president told the United Nations on Wednesday that security forces in his country’s Rakhine State, from which hundreds of thousands of people have recently fled, have been instructed to take “full measures” to avoid collateral damage and harming innocent civilians.
Addressing the assembly, Vice President Henry Van Thio said it was not only Rohingya Muslims who had fled, but members of other minority groups too. He said human rights violations would be dealt with “in accordance with strict norms of justice.”
On Wednesday, US Vice President Mike Pence accused the Myanmar military of responding to militant attacks “with terrible savagery, burning villages, driving the Rohingya from their homes.”
Pence called the crisis a threat to the world and said US President Donald Trump wanted the UN Security Council to take “strong and swift action” to the violence.
Van Thio said his government was “deeply concerned about the present situation in Rakhine” and said:
“The security forces have been instructed to adhere strictly to the Code of Conduct in carrying out security operations, to exercise all due restraint, and to take full measures to avoid collateral damage and the harming of innocent civilians.” He said the government’s “deepest sympathy goes to the families of all innocent civilians and members of the police and security forces who have lost their lives.”
Van Thio said the government was concerned by reports that Muslims were continuing to cross into Bangladesh even though there had been no armed clashes since Sept 5 and added: “We would need to find out the reason for this exodus.” Van Thio said the government recognized the need to ensure humanitarian assistance was provided “to all those in need without discrimination.”
He said a committee had been established under the social welfare minister to implement recommendations of an advisory commission chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the government would establish an advisory board comprised of “eminent persons” from Myanmar and abroad.
Myanmar was also working hard to enhance relations with Bangladesh and would welcome a visit by its home minister to discuss cooperation on border security, Van Thio said.
