MYANMAR: International aid groups flee Myanmar's Rakhine state after their offices and homes are attacked by angry mobs and a teenager is killed in the ensuing chaos

Record ID: 836632

  • Title: MYANMAR: International aid groups flee Myanmar's Rakhine state after their offices and homes are attacked by angry mobs and a teenager is killed in the ensuing chaos
  • Date: 28th March 2014
  • Summary: SITTWE, RAKHINE STATE, MYANMAR (MARCH 28, 2014) (REUTERS) FOREIGNERS FROM NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGO) GATHERING AT THE AIRPORT VARIOUS OF FOREIGNERS QUEUING TO BUY PLANE TICKETS NGO STAFF AT THE AIRPORT NGO STAFF AND PEOPLE AT THE AIRPORT FOREIGNERS NEAR SECURITY MACHINES NGO STAFF AND PEOPLE AT THE AIRPORT LUGGAGE ON THE FLOOR NGO STAFF AND PEOPLE AT THE AIRPORT VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF SITTWE AIRPORT MOURNERS GATHERING FOR FUNERAL OF 13-YEAR OLD GIRL SHOT DEAD AS SECURITY FORCES TRIED TO SECURE THE NGO QUARTERS THAT CAME UNDER ATTACK PEOPLE CRYING LEG OF VICTIM RELATIVES OF THE VICTIM CRYING CUP WITH MONEY/ SIGN ON THE CUP READING "MA NYEIN MA, AGE 13 " (Burmese) (SOUNDBITE) (Burmese) UNIDENTIFIED LOCAL SAYING: "The government must make us safe. This government needs to know what to do for our state and for our ethnic people" PEOPLE GATHERING AT THE FUNERAL VARIOUS OF DESTROYED UNHCR WAREHOUSE IN SITTWE SIGN READING IN DESTROYED WAREHOUSE "UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency" (English) DESTROYED UNHCR WAREHOUSE DESTROYED PAPER BOXES AND BAGS SIGN READING IN DESTROYED PAPER BOX "UNHCR, THE UN REFUGEE AGENCY" (English) VARIOUS OF INSIDE VIEW OF DESTROYED UNHCR WAREHOUSE DESTROYED FENCE OF UNHCR WAREHOUSE EXTERIOR OF UNHCR WAREHOUSE EXTERIOR OF DESTROYED UNICEF OFFICE SIGN READING ON WALL "UNICEF" DESTROYED PRINTER ON GROUND INSIDE VIEW OF DESTROYED OFFICE DESTROYED LAPTOP COMPUTER ON FLOOR DESTROYED LAND LINE PHONE AND DOCUMENTS ON FLOOR DESTROYED CHAIRS AND TABLE PEOPLE WALKING NEAR DESTROYED OFFICE POLICES NEAR DESTROYED MALTESER OFFICE BROKEN WINDOW OF THE OFFICE POLICE SECURITIES GUARDING THE DESTROYED BUILDING POLICE SHIELDS IN FRONT OF THE OFFICE GATE
  • Embargoed: 12th April 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Myanmar
  • City:
  • Country: Burma (Myanmar)
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA8FCEYKKZ1H4A7MF99WGIVAVC0
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Aid workers and foreign staff were queuing up at the airport on Friday (March 28) in Sittwe, in Burma's Rakhine state, after their homes and offices were ransacked by a mob who accused one of them of removing a Buddhist flag and showing disrespect.
    The state-run New Light of Myanmar reported on Friday that the attack was sparked when a resident said a foreign NGO had removed a Buddhist flag placed outside the organisation's office.
    It went on to say that 50 people surrounded the NGO building on Wednesday (March 26) and hurled stones at the house. Authorities and Buddhist monks are said to have intervened and helped disperse the crowd.
    The Democratic Voice of Burma reported the same NGO as saying the protest was against a census in which demonstrators were required to fly a Buddhist flag which was placed outside the building. The DVB says the house keeper removed the flag in the evening in accordance with the NGO's policy of not displaying any religious or political insignia.
    A riot then broke out on Thursday (March 27) and authorities rushed over to secure some of the aid organisations' offices and warehouses which were coming under attack. A shot was fired and a 13-year old Burmese girl, Ma Nyein Ma, was killed.
    Witnesses said security personnel fired warning shots in Sittwe, the main international aid operation zone, to disperse the attackers, who were demanding that the alleged flag-removing aid worker be handed over.
    It was not clear which aid agency the aid worker was with. The offices of some United Nations agencies were also attacked, Aung Mra Kyaw, an official from the Rakhine National Party, said.
    More than 70 aid workers, including some 30 foreigners, were evacuated from Sittwe where UNHCR and UNICEF warehouses and offices were attacked.
    The authorities have extended a nightly curfew already in place to between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. from midnight to 4 a.m.
    Malteser International has expressed concern that the violence on Wednesday and Thursday could spread. Their staff on the ground said they estimate that 90 per cent of all premises of international relief organizations and of the UN in Sittwe were attacked with stones by unidentified groups. Many offices - including the office of Malteser International - were entered and furniture and equipment destroyed.
    Malteser International as well as further international relief organisations in Sittwe have temporarily suspended their relief activities in Sittwe. In cooperation with other international organisations and the respective embassies, the organization has temporarily relocated its international as well as parts of its national staff to Yangon. At present, Malteser International does not see any threat for its national resident staff members in Sittwe.
    In a statement issued on Thursday Malteser International said the planned census due on March 29 and 30 and which is boycotted by vatious groups was the reason for recent unrest in Sittwe.
    Ingo Radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International, states on the organisation's website: "Malteser International is committed to the humanitarian principles and therefore the absolute ethnic and political neutrality of our work is our highest priority. We therefore avoid any form of political, religious or ethnic partisanship. That is the reason why our program coordinator has removed the Buddhist flag which - in the local context - might be seen as a symbol for a political positioning. She did not act in any degrading manner or express any cultural misconduct. As she noticed the population's disapproval, she has immediately handed over the flag to the owner of the warehouse."
    At least 237 have been killed in religious violence in Myanmar since June 2012 and more than 140,000 have been displaced, many of them Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine State.
    The government is about to embark on its first national census in more than 30 years.
    The Rohingya are regarded as immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh by many in Myanmar and are not recognised as one of the country's official ethnic groups, but some have said they will write in their ethnicity in a box on the census form.
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