By Asian Correspondent Staff
27th March 2017
 |
| A Rohingya refugee girl carries a baby inside a refugee camp in Sitwe, in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar March 4, 2017. Source: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun |
BURMESE (Myanmar) state media has announced a trip for
local and foreign journalists to visit Rakhine State, where the country’s
military has been accused of human rights abuses against the Rohingya.
According to government-owned newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar, a team of 20 foreign
and local media groups will be permitted to “freely investigate” in the
Maungtaw District, northern Rakhine state between March 28 and April 1. The
delegation will be led by general manager U Ye Naing from the Information
Ministry. http://www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/local-foreign-media-to-visit-maungtaw/
The article refers to Rakhine state as “the site of
violent attacks in October on border police outposts that prompted months of
security clearance operations,” referencing an assault on police officers in
the volatile region which left nine police officers dead and led to a brutal
clampdown on Rohingya.
SEE ALSO: UN human rights report
details ‘brutal’ cruelty against Rohingyas by Burmese forces: http://po.st/PItnla
The United Nations has claimed more than 1,000 Rohingya
have been killed in the army’s operations in Rakhine, and at least 70,000
Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh
since late 2016. The country’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been widely
criticised for her failure to speak out on the plight of the Rohingya. http://po.st/CY56As
On the “excursion” to Rakhine State, the government said
journalists are expected to cover “the fleeing and resettlement of families,
damage and reconstruction of areas destroyed by fire, the resulting decline of
the fishing industry of the district, immigration and trading of merchandise
near the border.”
No mention of military violence against the Rohingya
population is mentioned.
SEE ALSO: Meet Anwar, news editor
of the world’s first Rohingya channel: http://po.st/WNCRAy
The newspaper report also notes that some foreign and
local presses were granted access to the Maungtaw District on Dec 19, 2016. At
that time, however, the Associated Press and BBC were both barred and the
junket was widely criticised as a controlled exercise in propaganda.
Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Myanmar secretary Thitsa
Hla Htway told Voice of America that the
December trip was “just for show … the government’s intention is to exploit
them only.” http://www.voanews.com/a/3648167.html
The same month, Burma’s Religious Affairs and Culture
Ministry announced it was working on a treatise
at proving the Rohingya communities are not indigenous to the country. http://po.st/H3FAeR
Read more: http://po.st/uykKHB