Rakhine aid workers resigning over social media threats
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| (Photo: Aid Doctors) |
By Fiona MacGregor
August 18, 2013
Threats are forcing Myanmar workers to quit their jobs helping victims of violence in Rakhine State, it has emerged. International aid organisations working in the conflict-hit state say anti-Rohingya campaigners are targeting their staff on social media after learning their identities.
A source from a major international aid organisation working in the region said the group had seen a significant number of local members resign after threats to them and their families were posted on Facebook pages.
“It makes me very sad the way things have developed here. When I first came here I had Rakhine friends who understood what we were doing in the camps but now I can’t tell them anything because they don’t think we should be helping the Rohingya people,” said the aid worker.
“It has been very difficult for Rakhine staff who are picked on by the local community if they are seen to be helping Muslim people and a lot of them have resigned because of this. It makes things very difficult.”
There are more than 80 international aid organisations now based in Sittwe following last year’s violence between Rakhine Buddhists and the minority Muslim population, who call themselves Rohingya and are more commonly referred to as Bengalis in Myanmar.
The violence left more than 140,000 people, mainly Muslim, homeless and about 200 people dead.
Rakhine victims of the conflict have expressed anger at what they see as bias in the aid effort, with senior figures in the community complaining that international organisations have focused on the needs of Rohingya population over those of the Rakhine.
Earlier this year the problem of staff intimidation was highlighted by international medical and humanitarian aid organisation Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) International.
MSF said its medical teams faced “threats and hostility”.
“In pamphlets, letters and Facebook postings, MSF and others have been repeatedly accused of having a pro-Rohingya bias by some members of the Rakhine community. It is this intimidation, and not [lack of] formal permission for access, that is the primary challenge MSF faces,” it said.
“Our repeated explanations that MSF only seeks to provide medical aid to those who need it most is not enough to forestall the accusations.”
At the time the organisation called on the authorities to “do more to make it clear that threatening violence against health workers is unacceptable”.
However, the reports of staff resigning suggest the problem has worsened over recent months.
Contacted about the question of staff resignations in the face of threats and intimidation, a spokeswoman for MSF said, “I can confirm that this remains an issue today, which obviously impacts our ability to provide medical, humanitarian assistance to people who need it.”
The spokeswoman added that while Rakhine workers were particularly vulnerable, MSF staff from other parts of Myanmar working in Rakhine State have also come under attack on social media.
Rakhine Buddhists are not good Moral people, they are as like DEMON,not Humankind,So, they hostility to Human,Who are Good Human as like Rohingya Muslims.Their's mindset was Devil mindset.They can't feel suffering of Muslim people,because they're envious to Muslim People.I think, Rakhine extrmists Buddhists are the most derogatory people of the world,you can't find anywhere in the world as like arrogant and jealous people of Rakhine Extrmists Buddhists.We have need to make war to them.