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Internally displaced urged to return to Rakhine

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SITTWE: Myanmar’s army chief called on Thursday for people internally displaced by violence in Rakhine State to go home and rebuild communities, but he made no mention of 422,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape his force’s operations.


Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, in a major speech on his plans for Rakhine state on his first visit there since the latest strife erupted, said the military had handled the situation as best as it could after a wave of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on August 25.


The United Nations has said the military response to the insurgent attacks is ethnic cleansing aimed at pushing the Rohingya community out of Myanmar.


Myanmar denies that, saying its forces are waging a legitimate campaign against terrorists who have been attacking and torching villages of Buddhists and others, some 30,000 of whom were internally displaced.


Min Aung Hlaing did not mention the accusation of ethnic cleansing in his speech to business people, officials and some of the displaced, in Sittwe, the state capital. “Regarding the rehabilitation of villages of our national races, for the national races who fled their homes, first of all they must go back to their places,” he said.


“National races” is a Myanmar term referring to members of officially recognised indigenous ethnic groups who make up the diverse nation.


The Rohingya are not recognised as a “national race”, and are instead seen as illegal immigrants and denied citizenship.


Animosity between Buddhists in Rakhine state and the Rohingya goes back generations, but has seethed in recent years, fuelled in part by a surge of Buddhist nationalism since nearly five decades of strict military rule came to an end.— Reuters


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