Malaysian Ship Delivers Aid to Myanmar

A Malaysian humanitarian mission offloaded 500 tons of aid intended for Rohingya Muslims affected by recent violence in Myanmar at a port near the country’s commercial capital of Yangon on Thursday.

“It is not an easy task to reach Yangon, and praise God the first phase has been accomplished,” mission chief Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim told BenarNews. “We have asked the Myanmar government that several of our volunteers be present during the distribution of aid in Rakhine.”

Several dozen protestors rallied outside the port area as the mission delivered rice, instant noodles, water and hygiene kits to Myanmar’s Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Win Myat Aye.

“These ships arrived in Yangon under the pretext of helping refugees,” said Buddhist monk Ven Thuseitta from the Yangon chapter of the Patriotic Myanmar Monks Union.

“We can accept sincere help for refugees, but not this being exploited politically with the use of the word ‘Rohingya.’ We have never had Rohingya in our country, and we don’t want to hear that they want to help this nonexistent group.”

The country’s majority-Buddhist populace views the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies that they constitute a legitimate Myanmar ethnic group.

But Myanmar’s foreign affairs ministry on Thursday said the government would conduct an investigation of the crisis in Rakhine state following accusations by the United Nations that security forces committed serious human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims there.

30 disembark

The Nautical Aliya, carrying 2,200 tons of food and medical supplies, set sail Feb. 3 from Port Klang, Malaysia following a send-off by Prime Minister Najib Razak and other dignitaries.

The ship was also carrying 230 volunteers, including doctors, from Turkey, Indonesia, China, the United States, France, Thailand and the Palestinian territories. But only 30 people were allowed to disembark at Yangon Port for a handover ceremony on Thursday.

Malaysian officials deliver aid to Myanmar’s Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Win Myat Aye (far left) at Yangon Port on Feb. 9, 2017. Also seen (from right) Malaysian Consultative Council for Islamic Organization President Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid, mission chief Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim and Malaysia Deputy Foreign Minister Reezal Merican Naina Merican. [Courtesy of Food Flotilla for Myanmar]

Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia have criticized the Myanmar government over the Rakhine crisis and its treatment of the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and access to basic services although many have lived in the country for generations.

Indonesia has already sent 10 shipping containers of food, baby supplies, and clothes for Rohingya affected by the violence.

The Myanmar government initially objected to the “food flotilla” from Malaysia, which it claimed had not received official permission to enter its waters and deliver aid.

But Win Myat Aye, the social welfare, relief, and resettlement minister, called the delivery “an official arrangement between our ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] member countries.”

“Malaysia has contacted us officially to send this humanitarian assistance, and we will distribute all this assistance fairly among the two communities through the Rakhine state government,” he said.

The Myanmar government has said that the aid must be distributed to both Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine people alike.

Some of the food and other items will be transported to Rakhine’s capital Sittwe and northern Rakhine state, while the rest will go to southern Bangladesh for distribution to tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees living in camps in Teknaf, Kutupalong, and Nayapara, Rahim said.

The Nautical Aliya was due to depart Myanmar early Friday and reach Chittagong seaport before Feb. 14, officials said. It was originally bound for Teknaf, a town closer to the refugee camps, but Bangladesh authorities said the harbor there was too shallow.

Military inquiry board

Some 66,000 Rohingya fled into Bangladesh over the past four months amid a military crackdown in western Rakhine state following the killing of nine police by militants in October.

A U.N. report issued Feb. 3 and based on interviews with more than 200 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh said the Myanmar military’s actions “very likely amounted to ethnic cleansing.”

Myanmar's government and military have largely dismissed allegations of abuse against the Muslim minority.

But on Thursday, a government statement announced that an inquiry board of five senior military officers would try to determine whether soldiers used excessive force and committed human rights violations in Maungdaw district of Rakhine.

“We’ll have to find out how truthful the allegations are,” the foreign affairs ministry’s director-general Aye Aye Soe told Radio Free Asia, a sister entity of BenarNews.

A commission led by Vice President Myint Swe has been investigating reports of murder, torture, arson, and rape in northern Rakhine state since December.

In an interim report issued in January, the commission said it had found no cases of genocide or religious persecution of Rohingya Muslims living in the region. It also said its interviews of local villagers and women about rape allegations yielded insufficient evidence.

“The Rakhine state commission which is carrying out the investigations hasn’t even released its [final] report yet,” Aye Aye Soe said. “How can we comment on these allegations?” she said of the U.N. findings.

Hata Wahari in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.