British ambassador visits Rathedaung Township

Mauungdaw, Arakan State: British ambassadors Andrew Heyn accompanied by two others visited Rathedung Township from Maungdaw October 6, morning to see the situation of refugees of Rathedaung Township, said a local villager from Shil Khali on condition of anonymity.
“The refugees are from the villages of Anauk Pyin, Mozai Diya, Tharat Pyin, Tha Oo Pyin, Pryin Chaung, and Kudish Chaung of Rathedaung Township. Some of the houses of three villages ( Mozai Diya, Kudish Chaung,  Anauk Pyin)  are still existing, but the houses of the rest three villages were totally burned down during the riot. As a result, these villagers went to other villages such as—Shil Khali, Donsay Barasara of Rahedaung Township and Khwa Son village of Maungdaw Township to take shelter.”

They have been suffering from acute crisis of food, shelter, medicine, sanitarians because there are no NGOs and other donors to support these refugees in Maungdaw and Rathedaung. They are taking shelter in the said villages and the host villages provide food and shelter. However, food is inadequate for the refugees. So many children, old people and sick people were dead because of health scarcity and inadequate food supply.

These places are isolated area, in which no NGOs visited the area, so, they did not get any support or ration from any quarter. The villagers are not allowed to leave the village for buying anything from market, they cannot work outside the village, students can’t go to school and they don’t have access to health care if needed.

“We cannot grow rice in our fields on time for harvest, we can’t go from one village to the other because of movement restriction and suppression and oppression, we are facing famine,” said a local elder to the Ambassador.

“The ambassador also met with many male and female villagers and asked so many questions regarding the recent violence. The ambassador generally asked two questions— how and why the riot was occurred and the present situation of the refugees.

The refugees are very happy as the higher authority’s visit to their place and they are able to say everything what they want, said a local youth from the locality.

The envoy – British ambassador and other two- arrived at Akyab, the capital of Arakan State on October 2 from Rangoon.

The delegation is a fact finding mission that aimed to help ease tension between the Rakhine and Rohingya communities. They also want to find out what kind of assistance they could provide in solving the problems between two communities and to find out, how to stay together as before, a source said.

In the evening, the delegation returned to Maungdaw.
Source KPN