Myanmar 'to provide aid' to displaced Rohingya inside country

DAKHINPARA, BANGLADESH - SEPTEMBER 08: Rohingya Muslim refugees react after being re-united with each other after arriving on a boat from Myanmar on September 08, 2017 in Whaikhyang Bangladesh. Thousands of Rohingya continue to cross the border after violence erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine state when the country's security forces allegedly launched an operation against the Rohingya Muslim community. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) *** BESTPIX ***Show less

Camps will be set up to provide aid for displaced Muslims inside Rakhine state, state-backed media said on Saturday, the first time in a 16-day crisis Myanmar's government has offered any relief for Rohingya scattered by violence, many to Bangladesh.

Around 270,000 Rohingya have fled since August 25 when militant attacks sent unrest churning through Rakhine, arriving in Bangladesh hungry and exhausted and squashing into already overcrowded refugee camps.

Tens of thousands more are believed to be on the move inside Rakhine, fleeing burning villages, the army and ethnic Rakhine mobs — who Rohingya refugees accuse of attacking civilians — only to become stranded in hills without food, water, shelter or medical care.

Bangladesh has urged Myanmar to stem the exodus by providing for the displaced inside the country and provide 'safe zones' for the Rohingya.

Video: Bangladesh hospital overflows with persecuted Rohingya 

Around 27,000 Buddhists and Hindus have also been displaced following attacks by Rohingya militants and are receiving government help in monasteries and schools.

But the Rohingya, a stateless group refused citizenship by Myanmar, have been left to fend for themselves in what rights groups allege is a part of systematic campaign to force them out of the country.

Two weeks after violence scorched through the country, the government has said it will establish three camps in north, south and central Maungdaw — the epicentre of the violence and a Rohingya majority area.

Rohingya refugees gather by newly built shelters at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh's Ukhiya district on September 9, 2017. Nearly 300,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state into Bangladesh in the 15 days since new violence erupted, the United Nations said on September 9. The figure has jumped about 20,000 in a day. Munir Uz Zaman / AFP

Rohingya refugees cross a small bridge at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh's Ukhiya district on September 9, 2017. Nearly 300,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state into Bangladesh in the 15 days since new violence erupted, the United Nations said September 9. The figure has jumped about 20,000 in a day. Munir Uz Zaman / AFP

A Rohingya woman breaks down after a fight erupted during food distribution by local volunteers at Kutupalong, Bangladesh. The massive refugee camp in Kutupalong was set up in the early 90s to accommodate the first waves of Rohingya Muslim refugees who started escaping convulsions of violence and persecution in Myanmar. Bernat Armangue / AP Photo

Rohingya Mubarak Begum, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, holds a photograph of her family members, in Kutupalong, Bangladesh, Begum says the government took pictures of Rohingya families annually to track their numbers. Bernat Armangue / AP Photo

Newly arrived Rohingya refugees struggle for relief materials at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh's Ukhiya district. Munir Uz Zaman / AFP

Newly built shelters for Rohingya refugees are pictured at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh's Ukhiya district on September 9, 2017. Munir Uz Zaman / AFP

Newly built shelters for Rohingya refugees are pictured at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh's Ukhiya district on September 9, 2017. Munir Uz Zaman / AFP

A Rohingya girl sits near newly built shelters at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh's Ukhiya district on September 9, 2017. Munir Uz Zaman / AFP

"Displaced people who are currently spread out will be able to receive humanitarian aid and medical care" distributed by local Red Cross workers, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Saturday.

The report did not refer directly to the Rohingya but mentioned village clusters where the minority lived until the unrest.

Branded 'Bengalis' — shorthand for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh — the Rohingya have long been subjected to discrimination in mostly Buddhist Myanmar.

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More than 350,000 have fled since October when a new Rohingya militant group launched attacks on police posts.

That represents around a third of the estimated total of Rohingya in Myanmar.

Around 120,000 have languished in basic displaced camps following religious violence in 2012, while the rest are subject to suffocating restrictions on their movement and rights to work.

Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, on Friday said over a thousand people may have been killed in the subsequent army crackdown, the majority likely to be Rohingya.

In an interview with AFP, she said Myanmar's star politician Aung San Suu Kyi, a fearless democracy campaigner under the former junta, had failed to use her moral authority to defend the Rohingya.

"I think we need to delete our memories of the imprisoned democratic icon," Ms Lee said, explaining that Ms Suu Kyi was now a politician not a rights defender.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been condemned for her refusal to bend to pressure and speak out for the Rohingya including by Suu fellow Nobel laureates Malala Yousafzai and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.