Burma Campaign UK today welcomed reports that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will visit Bangladesh next month to discuss how “we can maximise humanitarian aid and livelihood support to communities in Rakhine.”
Burma Campaign UK has been campaigning for Antonio Guterres to visit Bangladesh to discuss the growing humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State, Burma. More than 1,000 people have so far signed an online petition calling on the UN Secretary General to visit Bangladesh. The petition is available here.
An aid and trade embargo imposed by the Burmese military on areas of Rakhine State which it no longer occupies is a deliberate tactic to use starvation as a tool of oppression.
In November the United Nations Development Programme warned of impending famine in Rakhine State:
- 2 million people face starvation.
- 95% of the population will be living in ‘survival mode’.
- The state is expected to produce only 20% of the food it needs.
- There is already a crisis, with well over 600,000 people displaced.
The petition calls on Antonio Guterres to negotiate the opening of an emergency aid corridor into Bangladesh, followed by agreements for the border of Bangladesh and Rakhine State, Burma to be opened to aid and trade into areas now under control of the Arakha Army.
Rakhine State (also known as Arakan State) is in western Burma, bordering Bangladesh in the North. The largest ethnic group there are Rakhine, but many ethnic and religious minorities live there, including the Rohingya.
The Arakha Army, mostly made up of ethnic Rakhine people, now controls most of Rakhine State, including areas where most Rohingya live. The Burmese military have used every tactic they can to try to weaken resistance to their occupation of Rakhine State. They have launched indiscriminate airstrikes and artillery attacks, exploited ethnic and religious tensions to try to divide and rule, and placed strict restrictions on aid and trade, including medicines, seeds and fertiliser, into the areas where they have lost control.
High level UN agency staff meetings with the Burmese military have elicited few concessions and not succeeded in persuading the military to end their aid and trade embargo or to allow unrestricted humanitarian access in Rakhine State. The only sustainable solution is for aid and trade across the border with Bangladesh into the areas under the control of the Arakha Army.
With the Arakha Army needing the long-term opening of the border with Bangladesh for trade going both ways, Bangladesh could be expected to use its strong negotiating position to seek major concessions from the Arakha Army regarding creating safe conditions for Rohingya refugee return into areas now under their control.
“We are relieved to see Antonio Guterres recognising that the scale of this crisis requires his personal intervention,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “This visit by the UN Secretary General provides the best hope of garnering momentum for the significant changes in approach that are required, including opening aid and trade routes from Bangladesh into Rakhine State, Burma.”
The United Nations Development Programme report, Rakhine: A Famine in the Making, is available here.
https://www.undp.org/asia-pacific/publications/rakhine-a-famine-in-the-making
Deccan Herald report on the visit here.
(1) The UN estimates that there are almost 600,000 internally displaced people, but local civil society say this is a serious underestimate.