YANGON: Myanmar must urgently address the plight of Muslims displaced by sectarian bloodshed in western Rakhine State and double the number of security forces to control the still-volatile region, an independent commission said yesterday.
Its long-awaited report recommended a mixed bag of humanitarian and security responses to violence last June and October that killed at least 192 people and left 140,000 homeless, mostly stateless Rohingya Muslims in an area dominated by ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.
The commission called for meetings between Buddhist and Muslim leaders to foster religious and ethnic tolerance, but also said segregation of the two communities “must be enforced at least until the overt emotions subside”.
Rakhine State is home to an estimated 800,000 Rohingya, regarded by the authorities as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.
The report, which calls them “Bengalis”, urged the government to assess their citizenship, but under a 1982 law that Rohingya activists said was drafted by the former junta to exclude them.
The commission said Rakhine Buddhists felt threatened by “the rapid population growth of the Bengali population”.
It recommended that if the government went ahead with a proposed family planning programme, it should “refrain from implementing non-voluntary measures which may be seen as discriminatory or that would be inconsistent with human rights standards”.
The commission also urged the government and international organisations to improve food security and living conditions in overcrowded camps before the annual monsoon.
REUTERS
