UN:

87,000 Muslims Displaced in Myanmar

Rasa - The recent wave of state violence against Muslim minority in Myanmar has displaced at least 87,000 people, UN said on Monday.

News ID: 426825

Date: 25 January 2017 - 21:40

RNA - The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said in a weekly report that at least 21,000 people are estimated to be internally displaced in the northern part of Rakhine State as a result of the 9 October attacks by security forces.

"This is in addition to the 66,000 people estimated to have crossed into Bangladesh," said the UN relief agency.

"Although humanitarian activities have been able to resume in many areas of northern Rakhine, the Government is still not permitting international staff to travel outside the main centres," it added.

Since 9 October, aid agencies and independent journalists have been denied access to majority Rohingya areas and at least 104 people have been killed and more than 600 people arrested.

However, Rohingya advocacy groups say the number of fatalities is much higher than official numbers and around 400 Rohingya -- described by the UN as among the world’s most persecuted groups -- were killed in military operations, women were raped and more than 1,000 Rohingya villages torched.

Rohingya Muslims have lived in Myanmar for generations, but they are denied citizenship based on a 1982 law, making them stateless. It also removes freedom of movement, access to education and services and allows arbitrary confiscation of property.

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, on Friday said the armed insurgency in Rakhine state was due to the decades of institutionalized discrimination against the Rohingya.

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