06 December 2012 - 05H41
Muslim Rohingya are shown in Mayebon Internally Displaced
Persons (IDP) camp in Mayebon township in the western Myanmar Rakhine
state in November 2012. The UN's humanitarian chief has described
conditions for thousands of displaced Muslim Rohingya in western Myanmar
as "dire"
Graphic on the migration of stateless Rohingya Muslims
Muslim Rohingya children eat lunch in a tent at the Bawdupha
Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, the
capital of Myanmar's western Rakhine state in November 2012. Crammed
into squalid camps, thousands of people who fled communal violence in
Myanmar face a deepening humanitarian crisis with critical shortages of
food, water and medicine, aid workers say.
AFP - The UN's humanitarian chief has described conditions
for thousands of displaced Muslim Rohingya in western Myanmar as "dire"
and said both Muslim and Buddhist communities are living in fear.
Valerie Amos, who toured violence-racked Rakhine state on Wednesday,
said in a statement released overnight that she was "very concerned" by
the situation there, with many people in overcrowded, unsanitary camps.
The United Nations said more than 115,000 people remain displaced by
the two rounds of communal violence that erupted in Rakhine in June and
October. Scores died in the conflict and whole villages, mainly those of
Rohingya Muslims, were forced to flee their homes.
"I was very concerned by some of what I saw today," said Amos, the
UN's under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency
relief coordinator.
Amos, who travelled in the state as part of a wider visit to Myanmar,
said that in one area, Myebon, thousands were packed into "overcrowded,
substandard shelter with poor sanitation".
"They don't have jobs, children are not in school and they can't
leave the camp because their movement is restricted. The situation is
dire," she said.
Decades-old animosity between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims exploded
in June after the apparent rape and murder of an ethnic Rakhine woman
sparked a series of revenge attacks.
"Tensions between the communities are still running very high," Amos said.
"People from both communities gave me the same message. They are
living in fear and want to go back to living a normal life. There is an
urgent need for reconciliation," she added.
The UN envoy urged Myanmar to boost support for aid agencies, citing
security threats to humanitarian workers as a serious challenge facing
the relief effort.
"The trust is not there. We need the political leaders in Myanmar to
support the important humanitarian work being done by the United Nations
and our partners," she said.
The UN said it had received around a third of the $68 million it
needs to provide relief for those displaced over the next nine months.
Myanmar's 800,000 Rohingya are seen as illegal immigrants from
neighbouring Bangladesh by the government and many Burmese. They have
long been considered by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted
minorities on the planet.
Source: here
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