Myanmar to probe riot targeting aid agencies

Myanmar has formed a five-member commission to probe an attack on an international aid agency in western Rakhine state earlier this week, the media reported Saturday.

The commission is headed by Border Affairs Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Maung Ohn, Xinhua reported, citing the official daily New Light of Myanmar.

The commission is tasked to investigate and take action against those who destroyed the residences and garages hired by the Malteser International aid organization and the UN during the riots March 26-27 in Sittway in Rakhine state.

The commission will present its report April 7, said the order signed by President U Thein Sein.

The riot, which targeted offices and residences of international aid groups, broke out Wednesday and continued into Thursday, in which a number of Sittway-based offices of international aid groups, including UN agencies ICRC, UNHCR, and WFP, were stoned and attacked by hundreds of unidentified local ethnic Rakhine demonstrators.

A total of 71 aid workers, including 32 foreigners, have been evacuated to safer places under escort of local police force.

The unrest was triggered Wednesday night by the taking down of a Buddhist flag by a female project coordinator of a humanitarian organisation. The flag was hoisted at the office of the organisation as a symbol of boycotting the government's upcoming nationwide census slated for the end of this month.

Following the incident, Myanmar's Rakhine state government imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew order in Sittway Thursday night in a bid to prevent violence from spreading further, according to local Rakhine official sources.

The curfew is effective from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Tension has prevailed in Rakhine state ahead of the nationwide census which is the first in three decades.

Thousands of ethnic Rakhine residents have been protesting over the past several days against listing Rohingyas as Myanmar ethnic people in the census.

Rakhine state was previously hit by bloody sectarian violence in mid-2012.