UK Edition
Britain tells Aung San Suu Kyi that violence against Rohingya Muslims risks undermining progress on democracy
Britain's minister for Asia has told Aung San Suu Kyi that her government must heed UN calls to halt violence against Myanmar's Rohingya minority or see it "derail" the country's recent democratic reforms.
Mark Field met Ms Suu Kyi in Naypyidaw before visiting Rakhine State, the epicentre of what the UN has called a campaign of "textbook ethnic cleansing" that has displaced nearly half a million people.
The meeting came as the Myanmar government announced it would assume management of all burnt property and land, raising fears about the viability of refugees returning to their homes.
Mr Field, who met Myanmar officials and visited an displaced persons camp in Rakhine, called the situation "an absolute and unacceptable tragedy."
"During my meetings with state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and others, I strongly emphasised the need for Burma to heed the Security Council’s call to end violence and allow humanitarian access to those in need of aid," Mr Field said in a statement released by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Wednesday evening.
"Burma has taken great strides forward in recent years. But the ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis in Rakhine risks derailing that progress,” he said.
Mr Field and Alistair Burt, a minister representing both the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development, will fly to Bangladesh for talks with aid agencies and government officials on Thursday.
Aid agencies say 480,000 ethnic Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh since the military launched what it claims is an anti-terrorist operation on August 25. It amounts to the largest displacement of people in such a short period of time in decades, and has drawn comparisons to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The Burmese government says that its military is responding to a series of attacks by a Rohingya militant group that left several security personnel dead.
Refugees arriving in Bangladesh have described a systematic campaign of house burnings, killings and rape by soldiers and vigilante mobs led by local government officials.
Fears about ethnic cleansing were further compounded on Wednesday when the Myanmar government said it would assume responsibility for redeveloping areas depopulated by house burnings.
“According to the law, burnt land becomes government-managed land,” Win Myat Aye, Minister for Social Development, Relief and Resettlement, told a meeting in Sitwe, the capital of Rakhine State, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
Representatives of UN agencies will be permitted to visit Rakhine state in Myanmar on Thursday for the first time since the massive exodus began.
"There will be a trip organised by the government, probably tomorrow, to Rakhine," said Stephane Dujarric, United Nations spokesman. "We hope above all that it is a first step toward much freer and wider access to the area."