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| (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters) |
By Antoni Slodkowski
Reuters
November 15, 2016
YANGON -- Up to 69 members of what Myanmar's government has
described as a Rohingya Muslim militant group and 17 members of the security
forces have been killed in an escalation of fighting in ethnically divided
Rakhine State, the army said on Tuesday.
The death toll, announced in the state-owned Global New
Light of Myanmar daily, was sharply higher than that reported by state media at
the weekend, and came as former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, who chairs a
commission on resolving Rakhine's problems, voiced concern at the upsurge in
violence.
The bloodshed is the most serious since hundreds were killed
in communal clashes in Rakhine in 2012.
It has exposed the tension between Nobel Peace Prize winner
Aung San Suu Kyi's seven-month-old civilian administration and the army, which
ruled for decades and retains key powers, including control of ministries
responsible for security.
"I wish to express my deep concern over the recent
violence in northern Rakhine State, which is plunging the state into renewed
instability and creating new displacement," said former UN Secretary
General Annan in a statement.
"All communities must renounce violence and I urge the
security services to act in full compliance with the rule of law," he
said. Members of the commission, set up by Suu Kyi in August, are in Rakhine
for consultations with community members this week.
Soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar's frontier
with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on
Oct. 9 that killed nine police officers.
They have locked down the district, where the vast majority
of residents are Rohingya Muslims, shutting out aid workers and independent
observers, and conducted sweeps of villages.
A series of skirmishes and attacks during the six days to
Monday had led "to the death of 69 violent attackers and the arrest of
234", the military's True News Information Team said.
Ten policemen and seven soldiers were also killed in the
clashes, it added.
The announcement takes to 102 the tally of deaths of
suspected Rohingya Muslim attackers since Oct. 9, while the security forces'
toll stands at 32, based on reports in state-owned media.
HUMANITARIAN AID
Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims are denied
citizenship, with many of the country's majority Buddhists regarding them as
illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
The Rohingya face severe restrictions on travel and access to
healthcare. Many were dependent on regular nutritional and medical aid long
before the outbreak of fighting in October.
Top diplomats from the UN, Britain, the United States and
several other countries traveled to the area in early November and said the
government had agreed to the restoration of humanitarian aid.
But only 7,200 people from four villages have received food,
while regular aid convoys to the area have not been restored, according to the
UN's humanitarian agency.
"While this limited access is welcome, thousands of
people remain in need of humanitarian assistance with up to 15,000 people
displaced in the area of security operations," the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.
"Humanitarian services for more than 150,000 people
have now been suspended for more than a month," it said.
Residents and rights advocates have accused security forces
of summary executions, rapes and setting fire to homes in the recent violence.
The government and army reject the accusations, blaming the
"violent attackers" for razing houses.
Rohingya rights advocates have distributed online video
images of what they said were civilian casualties of the attacks, urging the
international community to investigate.
Authorities have denied independent journalists access to
the area, so Reuters has been unable to independently verify either the
military accounts or the video clips.