This week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report that highlights gross rights abuses and possible ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people in western Myanmar.
Partners Relief & Development (PRAD) confirms that HRW’s
claims are in line with what its staff has seen and heard in Arakan
State. More than 120,000 people are still in desperate need of emergency
relief. The humanitarian situation is close to a catastrophe. People
lack everything from food and medicine to tarps and blankets.
I have interviewed more than 30 people who in some way have been
victims of violence in Arakan over the last year. They testify to
horrific acts of violence where not even children were spared. They
confirm that both police and army officials participated in the
violence. They speak of unlawful arrests, torture and rape. These are
people who are living in hopeless despair.
One woman I talked to cried uncontrollably as she told us of the
massacre of her 29 relatives, among them her seven children and 18
grandchildren.
PRAD wants to support HRW in demanding an immediate change in Arakan.
The Myanmar government must immediately investigate the acts of
violence, and the offenders must be brought to justice. The Rohingya people
must be given back the citizenship they lost in 1982. Humanitarian-aid
organisations must get free access to the areas in greatest need.
PRAD also wants to encourage the international community to take this
situation seriously and reconsider if financial investment in the
Myanmar is justifiable as long as the government is not able to put and
end to the serious rights abuses against the Rohingya people.
Oddny Gumaer
PRAD advocacy officer
source: The Arakan Observer
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