BBC Online :
The Myanmar government has suspended the operations of one of the biggest aid agencies working in violence-hit Rakhine state.
Speaking to the BBC, a presidential spokesman alleged that Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was biased in favour of Rakhine’s Muslim Rohingya minority.
MSF is one of the biggest providers of healthcare in Rakhine.
It provides emergency assistance to tens of thousands of Rohingya people displaced by recent violence. It also administers extensive HIV and anti-malaria programmes.
Rakhine state – in the west of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma – has seen several outbreaks of violence targeting the Rohingya since June 2012.
Aid agencies in Rakhine state face a difficult choice. Keep quiet in a situation some have described as close to apartheid or speak out and risk infuriating the Buddhist majority.
Most have opted to keep their heads down, reasoning that their priority is to try and assist the most needy. Medecins Sans Frontieres have not, and consistently raise issues of access and the dire conditions in camps for displaced Rohingya.
With MSF already unpopular among Rakhine Buddhists, in January there was an incident which may have directly led to their suspension. A massacre is alleged to have taken place of Rohingya Muslims near the border with Bangladesh. Two narratives quickly emerged, with the UN claiming that as many as 48 people may have died, while the Burmese authorities said there had been no casualties.
Then much to the annoyance of the government, MSF confirmed that their medics had treated 22 patients near the site of the alleged attack.
