Iranian Official Blasts Myanmar Gov't for Blocking Humanitarian Aid to Displaced Muslims

Rasa - A senior official of Iran's Red Crescent Society (IRCS) lashed out at Myanmar government for preventing dispatch of humanitarian aid to the displaced Muslims.

News ID: 433040

Date: 11 October 2017 - 17:18

RNA - "Myanmar doesn’t allow aid for Muslims to enter its soil," Head of the IRCS's Rescue and Relief Organization Morteza Salimi said on Wednesday.

Noting that Iran is sending its third cargo of humanitarian aid, including 30 tons of foodstuff, medicine and medical equipment, to Bangladesh to be sent to Myanmar Muslims, he called on all countries to help.

Salimi added that Iran is making efforts to set up accommodation facilities and field hospitals for the displaced Myanmar Muslims.

Head of Iran's Red Crescent Society Ali Asqar Peivandi along with one of his deputies headed to Bangladesh on Tuesday night and the third cargo of Iran's humanitarian aid will be dispatched to the Myanmar Muslims later.

Iran has sent two 30-ton and 40-ton cargos of humanitarian aid to the Muslims in Myanmar via Bangladesh in the past month.

The Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar have long been subjected to discrimination in Buddhist-majority country, which denies them citizenship.

Myanmar's government regards them as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, even if they have lived in the country for generations.

Refugee camps near Bangladesh's border with Myanmar already had about 300,000 Rohingya before the upsurge in violence last month and are now overwhelmed.

Tens of thousands of new arrivals have nowhere to shelter from monsoon rains.

Those flocking into Bangladesh have given harrowing accounts of killings, rape and arson by Myanmar's army. Myanmar authorities deny any wrongdoing.

Most have walked for days and the UN says many are sick, exhausted and in desperate need of shelter.

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