BURMA pledged on
Wednesday “no restrictions” on journalists visiting the troubled state of
Rakhine this week, in the first official trip to include foreign reporters to
mostly Rohingya Muslim villages affected by violence since October.
Eighteen Burmese
nationals and foreigners representing international media, including Reuters,
arrived in the state capital of Sittwe on Wednesday ahead of a
government-escorted visit to the northern areas of Buthidaung and Maungdaw,
where most residents are stateless Rohingyas.
“There are no
restrictions regarding the areas that you can report from,” said Thet Swe, a
director at the Ministry of Information’s News and Periodicals Enterprise.
“We didn’t arrange
any ‘for show’ places for news reporting,” he said.
SEE ALSO: Burma must ‘fully cooperate’ in UN
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Last year, Burma‘s
army unleashed a crackdown in the area after Rohingya militants attacked posts
near the Bangladesh border, killing nine police officers.
Some 75,000 people
fled across the nearby border to Bangladesh, according to the United Nations,
which has documented allegations of gang rape, torture, arson and killings by
security forces.
Burma’s government,
led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has denied most of the allegations, and
has denied entry to a UN fact-finding mission tasked with looking into the
allegations.
The government has
blocked independent journalists and human rights monitors from going to the
area in the far north of the state for the past nine months.
Suu Kyi has said a
UN fact-finding mission would only heighten tension in the region. Many in
Buddhist-majority Burma, see the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from
Bangladesh.
Burmese officials
say a domestic investigation, led by Vice President Myint Swe – a former
lieutenant general in the army – and a commission headed for former UN chief
Kofi Annan – which is not mandated to investigate human rights abuses – are the
appropriate ways to address problems in Rakhine State.
Security concerns
Annan recommended in
March that authorities “provide full and regular access for domestic and
international media to all areas affected by recent violence”.
Reporters on the
visit to the northern areas would be provided security by Burma’s paramilitary
Border Guard Police force, Thet Swe said.
Although access
would not be restricted, he said, reporters should stay close to officials
during visits to villages for their own security.
A detailed itinerary
for the five-day trip was provided to reporters on Wednesday.
The itinerary does
not include visits to the villages at the centre of a two-week offensive in
mid-November, in which Reuters has documented numerous allegations of abuses by
troops following a clash with Rohingya militants.
SEE ALSO: Starvation hits Burma’s Rakhine state
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However, Thet Swe
said, the plan was “not fixed” and would be subject to changes due to the
weather and security concerns. He invited reporters to suggest additional
places they want to visit.
Reporters would be
taken to the village of Tin May, where security forces killed two suspected
militants and arrested one after they detonated a bomb on Sunday, according to
an announcement from Suu Kyi’s office.
While Burma has
denied entry to a UN fact-finding mission, a UN special rapporteur on human
rights, Yanghee Lee, is visiting Rakhine State this week.
Although she is not
expected to visit the northern areas near the border with Bangladesh, she is
due to meet some of the people displaced in violence since 2012.
About 120,000
Rohingya have lived in “internally displaced persons” camps in Rakhine State,
dependent of international aid, since communal widespread violence that year. –
Reuters
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