Troubled Myanmar state invites back aid groups

Authorities in Myanmar's Rakhine state have said international aid organisations are welcome to return to the area they left in April after Buddhist mobs disrupted their work helping displaced Rohingya Muslims.
A state government announcement in today's New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the move followed a meeting in June between officials and aid agencies and other interested parties to discuss a peace and development plan.
The announcement specifically invited Doctors without Borders, which had been kicked out in February after it publicised alleged attacks on Rohingyas. The government had accused the group, also known by its French initials MSF, of bias and lacking transparency in its work.

International aid agencies had been the main lifeline for more than 140,000 Rohingya Muslims who have been living in dirty, crowded camps after their villages were destroyed by mobs. Up to 280 people have also been killed, most of them Rohingya, after sectarian violence that began in 2012.
The agencies also provide food, water and medical care to 700,000 other vulnerable people in the state, both Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists.
MSF in Yangon welcomed the government's announcement.

"We look forward to continuing constructive discussions with the Ministry of Health regarding how MSF can support the ministry in the immediate expansion of lifesaving medical activities for the people of Rakhine currently facing a humanitarian crisis," it said in an emailed statement.

The announcement came as a visiting human rights envoy from the UN, which has been critical of the government, was wrapping up a fact-finding mission. Yanghee Lee's mission included covering the situation in Rakhine state.
Her predecessor, Argentina's Tomas Ojea Quintana, declared that severe shortages of food, water and medical care in the Rohingyas' resettlement camps could amount to "crimes against humanity."
Rakhine mobs rampaged through aid agency facilities in April, causing many to withdraw their personnel. Several have continued operating, including the Danish Refugee Council, Action Against Hunger and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
No details were provided of how soon the other organisations could resume their work or how their security could be assured. The agencies operate under the auspices of the state Emergency Coordination Centre, which has shown little initiative in easing the plight of the Rohingya.

Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million people, emerged from a half-century of military rule with an election in 2010. But the US and others worry that nascent democratic reforms could be undermined by growing religious intolerance.
What was originally a localised problem in Rakhine state has turned into a sometimes violent campaign led by Buddhist extremists against Muslims in other parts of Myanmar.