Myanmar aid curbs hit children in Muslim-majority region –
UN
By Simon Lewis
Reuters
November 9, 2016
Tens of thousands in Rakhine state cut off from aid since
deadly attacks on police last month
YANGON - Unrest in Myanmar's northwest is taking a
"terrible toll" on children, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said
and called for full humanitarian access to the Muslim-majority north of Rakhine
state.
"While some aid has been delivered in recent days,
UNICEF calls for full resumption of essential services and the urgent lifting
of all restrictions of movement of health and other professionals so they can
safely reach children and families," UNICEF said in a statement from New
York on Tuesday.
Troops have poured into the region in response to the
attacks, in which assailants believed to be from the mostly stateless Rohingya
group killed nine policemen.
The army declared the area an "operation zone",
blocked aid and barred foreign journalists and observers from the Maungdaw
area. Residents and human rights monitors say extra-judicial killings, rape and
arbitrary arrests have taken place.
Security forces have killed 33 alleged attackers, while five
soldiers and one policeman have been killed, according to state-run media.
On Tuesday, the World Food Programme said it had begun the
first deliveries of food aid in Maungdaw in more than a month, reaching about
6,500 people in four villages affected by the violence.
WFP said its assistance would normally reach 152,000 people
in northern Rakhine.
The majority in the area are Rohingya Muslims, a 1.1 million
strong group in Rakhine who face restrictions on their movements and access to
services.
The malnutrition rate is 19 percent among children under
five in Maungdaw, according to U.N. statistics.
The limited access came after a request from diplomats and
the U.N.'s top official in Myanmar, who visited Maungdaw over two days last
week. The delegation called for an independent investigation into alleged rights
abuses and for aid programmes to be allowed to resume.
U.N. officials and diplomats from Western countries
privately expressed concern at the public response to the crisis from the
government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which has flatly denied
allegations of abuses committed by the military.
State-run newspapers have said last week's visit by
diplomats - who stressed they were not able to verify claims of rights abuses -
revealed that the allegations were baseless. A key official spokesman singled
out a journalist reporting allegations and said the claims were concocted by
people with links to insurgents.