Burma’s Persecuted Minority Can’t Even Get A Band Aid Now

Photos taken by Osman Sagirli, Turkish journalist, currently in the region with IHH team

By Fatimah

Carbonated.TV

March 11, 2014

Not only is the Rohingya Muslim minority of Myanmar (Burma) being persecuted, it’s also deprived of much-needed medical supplies that can help heal the physical wounds from the ethnic genocide that has been carried out against them for about two years now.

International aid group “Doctors Without Borders” (aka in French as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF) stated last week that the Union Government of Burma ordered them to cease its operations over accusations of biased relief efforts.

Rohingya activists claim the ban will leave nearly 700,000 people without access to vital medical care in the Rakhine State – the country's second-most impoverished region which has also been plagued by ethnic rioting.

Moreover, most of the clinics in western Rakhine have been shut down except a general hospital. However, the Rohingya people cannot travel there because they are reportedlycharged an unaffordable amount of money by security officers.

Burma has been accused of waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims since June 2012.

According to a Human Rights Watch report, the Burmese government and local authorities are responsible for the forced displacement of more than 125,000 Rohingya and other Muslims in the country.

It also stated that the tens of thousands of the displaced people have been denied access to humanitarian aid and are unable to return home.

Image: Mark Modimola (www.markmodimolaart.blogspot.com)

Several petitions have been created to garner the United Nations’ attention. After months of appeals and pleas, the so-called international peacekeeper called on the Burmese government earlier in January to carry out an impartial investigation of the Rohingya carnage.

But given the fact relief operations have been asked to be suspended, it doesn’t seem like the authorities have paid any heed to the UN orders.

“On February 27, Médecins Sans Frontières Holland received a written order from the Union Government of Myanmar to cease all operations in the country, which led to a full closure of all MSF Holland clinics on February 28. This act left patients confused and desperately concerned across the whole country,” MSF stated.

One wonders when Aung San Suu Kyi will finally step in and take control. If ever.

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