Fears for the safety of international workers and vital aid efforts in troubled Rakhine State were raised on Sunday after the Myanmar government highlighted claims that international NGO staff had collaborated with terrorists, even as violence sparked by deadly attacks continued for a third day.
The government's allegations – condemned by observers as dangerously inflammatory – came as Reuters journalists on the border reported hearing gunfire from the Myanmar side as thousands of Rohingya refugees, mainly women and children, waited to cross the Naaf river into Bangladesh. The government said over 4,000 non-Muslim residents had been evacuated.
On Sunday, a Facebook post by State Counsellor Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s information committee, said the government was investigating the validity of “news” that international aid workers were among a group of “Bengali extremist terrorists” who had circled Taung Bazzar village the day before.
The government then immediately referred back to the discovery of food parcels from the UN’s World Food Programme at an abandoned terrorist camp on July 30. The post also showed a picture of WFP parcels along with gruesome photos of the bodies of what it said were members of a Hindu family of six – three adults and three children – who had been killed by terrorists on Saturday.
The UN said on Sunday it was evacuating non-essential staff from the conflict-hit north "in light of the situation on the ground". The withdrawal is understood to have already been under way before the allegations were made.
“WFP is aware of a photo of one box of WFP biscuits reportedly found in an alleged insurgent training camp last month. WFP takes any allegation of food diversions very seriously," a media representative of the Office of the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar said. "We have requested more details from the authorities and asked to see the batch number of the biscuits as this will allow us to trace its origins and distribution site."
Earlier this month, protests were held in the state capital Sittwe calling for international workers to be evicted from Rakhine. The UN also warned staff of security risk amid heightened anti-foreign tensions from the ethnic-Rakhine community.
Francis Wade, the author of Myanmar's Enemy Within which investigates anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar, said Sunday's post could "encourage direct attacks on aid workers who are seen to be complicit" and would threaten supply of aid to people who desperately needed it.
Most international NGO staff have not been granted travel permissions for the north in recent weeks, but the withdrawal of UN staff and other aid workers from the north is expected to further exacerbate the desperate levels of malnutrition in the region where many children are already perilously close to starvation level.
It will also further reduce international representatives in the area where allegations of rights abuses are rife, particularly after Muslim insurgents attacked police posts in October last year, putting the region under lock down while brutal reprisals were widely alleged to have been conducted.
Mr Wade warned the government's statement could play into broader anti-foreigner sentiment.
The post condemned foreign media for referring to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) as insurgents rather than terrorists, threatening to use international police to bring legal actions against foreign media deemed to be supporting the group. Myanmar on Friday declared the group a terrorist organisation.
“The government has already accused agencies like the UN of deliberately orchestrating a smear campaign to tarnish the country's image by highlighting the army's crimes. What concerns above all is that the civilian government will know the consequences - that this kind of rhetoric directly influences whether people participate in attacks on Rohingya and aid groups. Yet it proceeds nonetheless,” he said.
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Read more:
Terror and persecution go on for Myanmar's Muslim minority
Fresh violence kills 71 in Myanmar's Rakhine State
What hope now for the Rohingya in Myanmar?
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The UN and most other international NGOs are commonly perceived by the Buddhist ethnic Rakhine community to be biased in favour of the Rohingya Muslims - over 100,000 of whom have been confined to camps since violence broke out between them and their ethnic Rakhine neighbours in 2012.
In 2014, a rampaging mob attacked the bases of international NGOs in the town after growing tensions erupted when an international worker was accused of disrespecting a Buddhist flag.
“Things are as tense here for international staff,” one Sittwe-based international aid worker said on Sunday, comparing the current situation to 2014.
Ms Suu Kyi has previously accused international governments and organisations who have condemned Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya of inflaming tensions. She has been criticised in some international circles for aligning herself with the military over allegations security forces have committed rights abuses against Rohingya civilains and backed a refusal to allow UN fact-finders to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
By agreeing on Thursday to include international and regional representatives among those tasked with implementing the recommendations of former UN chief Kofi Annan’s Advisory Commission on the Rakhine state, Ms Suu Kyi appeared to be offering some hope that some international input into the solution for the long-running tensions would be continued.
But Sunday’s post from her information committee will only serve to heighten wider public mistrust of any foreign involvement.
Rakhine erupted into fresh violence in the early hours of Friday morning when Arsa conducted deadly attacks on 30 police posts – just hours after the commission led by Mr Annan delivered its recommendations on how to ease the ethno-religious tensions.
More than 1 million Rohingya Muslims live in Rakhine, most of them denied citizenship or basic freedom of movement.
The latest figures on Sunday placed the death toll in the wake of Friday’s attacks at 98 – including 12 security personnel and around 80 insurgents.
With northern Rakhine still under lock-down, it remained difficult to get a clearer picture of the situation on the ground, with social media posts including claims and counterclaims of violence on both sides.
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 194hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 275Nm from 2,000-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Price: from Dh155,000
On sale: now
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
Book%20Details
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Bareilly Ki Barfi
Directed by: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring: Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao
Three and a half stars
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Off-roading in the UAE: How to checklist
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKinetic%207%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202018%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Rick%20Parish%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Clean%20cooking%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Self-funded%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
EMILY%20IN%20PARIS%3A%20SEASON%203
%3Cp%3ECreated%20by%3A%20Darren%20Star%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Lily%20Collins%2C%20Philippine%20Leroy-Beaulieu%2C%20Ashley%20Park%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%202.75%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Chef Nobu's advice for eating sushi
“One mistake people always make is adding extra wasabi. There is no need for this, because it should already be there between the rice and the fish.
“When eating nigiri, you must dip the fish – not the rice – in soy sauce, otherwise the rice will collapse. Also, don’t use too much soy sauce or it will make you thirsty. For sushi rolls, dip a little of the rice-covered roll lightly in soy sauce and eat in one bite.
“Chopsticks are acceptable, but really, I recommend using your fingers for sushi. Do use chopsticks for sashimi, though.
“The ginger should be eaten separately as a palette cleanser and used to clear the mouth when switching between different pieces of fish.”
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
ABU%20DHABI'S%20KEY%20TOURISM%20GOALS%3A%20BY%20THE%20NUMBERS
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'My Son'
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5