“Burma blocks entry for UK government committee after Rohingya crisis criticism”, The Telegraph
By Nicola Smith in Taipei, London, 1 March 2108
The Burmese authorities have been accused of blocking a British parliamentary fact-finding trip to the country after UK MPs were critical of their role in the Rohingya crisis.
The Commons International Development Committee had been due to hold a series of meetings with senior military and civilian leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and also to scrutinise British aid projects in Burma.
In January the same committee produced a damning report on the treatment of the Rohingyas, highlighting evidence of sexual violence during the military crackdown on the Muslim minority, which began in late August and has caused nearly 700,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.
Committee chair and Labour MP Stephen Twigg suggested that the Burmese embassy’s failure to provide visas for the group was linked.
“We are extremely disappointed. It is hard to escape the conclusion that this is a direct consequence of our report on the Rohingya,” he said.
Mr Twigg added that the refusal to allow the committee to enter Burma hampered its job of overseeing projects funded by a £100 million Department for International Development (DFID) aid programme for 2018-19.
MPs had been due to visit health and education projects in Rakhine state, home to the Rohingya minority, and in the Magway region of central Burma.
In January the committee’s report raised “grave concern” about plans to repatriate refugees, decrying the “huge human tragedy” that had been created by Burma’s actions.
MPs cautioned that the repatriation plans were “well apace” without guarantees of protection or that the first batch of returnees would be voluntary.
An agreement to return the refugees in stages has been drawn up between the Burmese and Bangladeshi governments, but a push from Naypyidaw to begin the repatriation in late January was put on ice for logistical reasons.
Fears of being forced to return have swept the camps sheltering traumatised refugees. Community leaders are demanding that Burma first guarantee the Rohingya long-denied citizenship and include them on the list of the country’s recognised ethnic groups.
On Wednesday hundreds of Rohingya living in the no man’s land between the two countries abruptly fled into Bangladesh.
They claimed that Burmese soldiers had used loudhailers to threaten and order them to leave. About 6,000 Rohingya have been living on the thin strip of land between Bangladesh and Burma since August.
In recent weeks they have come under pressure from Burmese soldiers who have stepped up patrols along the barbed wire border fence.
Community leader Dil Mohammed told AFP that people were beginning to panic. “We can’t now sleep peacefully. Most of the Rohingya in the camps now want to flee and take shelter in Bangladesh,” he said.