Aid Group Told to Leave Troubled Burma State

Authorities in Burma, also known as Myanmar, said they will not allow the international aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to continue their work in troubled Rakhine State, home to Muslim minorities including the stateless Rohingya.

Presidential spokesman U Ye Htut told the Myanmar Freedom newspaper on Friday that the government would not extend the organization's working permit under a Memorandum of Understanding because the group lacked transparency in its work.

He criticized the group for saying that more than 40 Rohingya were killed in an attack in the remote northern part of the state last month. The government insists that only one Buddhist policeman died.
 
MSF said on Jan. 24 it had treated 22 people in the area of the alleged massacre for injuries including a gunshot wound, stab wounds and beatings.
 
A diplomatic source who declined to be identified told Reuters that MSF was in negotiations with officials in the capital, Naypyitaw, after suspending operations late on Thursday.
 
An MSF spokesman declined to comment. Ye Htut and other government officials were unavailable for comment.

On Friday, the United States urged Burma to allow humanitarian agencies "unfettered access" in Rakhine state.
               
The Nobel Prize-winning charity has been giving health care to both ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, a mostly stateless minority who live in apartheid-like conditions and who otherwise have little access to healthcare.
 
"Free, regular and open access is essential to ensure the benefits of humanitarian activities are delivered appropriately to all people of Rakhine State," a U.S. embassy official told Reuters.
 
'Internal affair'
 
Burma's government has repeatedly rejected reports by MSF, the United Nations and human rights groups that Rohingya villagers in Maungdaw township were attacked and their homes looted.
               
On Jan. 29, the government called diplomats to a briefing where officials said they had found no evidence of a massacre, but promised further investigation.
 
A request by U.S. Ambassador Derek Mitchell to include an international representative on the investigating team was denied by Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, who said it was "an internal affair."
 
Incidents in Maungdaw township and other parts of Rakhine state are difficult to verify independently as they are off limits to journalists and the government controls access by international aid groups, despite a wave of democratic reforms since military rule ended in 2011.
 
If confirmed, the massacre would take to at least 277 the number of people killed in religious conflict across Burma since June 2012. More than 140,000 people have been displaced.
 
Most of the victims were Muslims and the most deadly incidents happened in Rakhine State, where about a million Rohingya live.
 
MSF has worked in the state for almost 20 years treating hundreds of thousands of people from all ethnic groups through programs including maternal health and treatment for HIV and  tuberculosis, according to its website.
 
"Insecurity, delayed authorization and repeated threats and intimidation by a small and vocal group of the Rakhine community have hindered MSF's work," the group said on its website.
 
The government refuses to officially recognize the Rohingya Muslim minority. It says members of any officially-recognized minority must be able to prove their ancestors lived in Burma before the British invaded Rakhine in 1823.

Many of Burma's hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims say their ancestors have lived in Burma for generations, but the impoverished minority group lacks the documentation to prove it.
Source: http://www.voanews.com/content/aid-group-told-to-leave-troubled-burma-state/1861133.html