US urges Myanmar to prevent violence in Rakhine

By Esra Kaymak Avci

WASHINGTON

The U.S. has urged the government of Myanmar to do more to stem violence in western Rakhine State where 69 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by security forces in the past month.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said Tuesday that a U.S. delegation currently holding talks in Myanmar asked the government to "improve transparency" and facilitate a credible independent investigation of the killings.

Trudeau also reiterated a call for humanitarian access.

Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar in droves since mid-2012 after communal violence broke out in Rakhine between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya -- described by the United Nations as among the most persecuted minority groups worldwide.

The Myanmar government has said that that since an armed group launched fatal attacks on police stations in the country's west Oct. 9, 86 people -- including soldiers and 69 Rohingya (among them two women) -- have been killed in Rakhine.

There has been no independent verification of the attacks or deaths as access to the affected area near the Bangladesh border has been under Myanmar military control since Oct. 9.

Rohingya groups, however, claim that the number of Rohingya killed could be as high as 150 this weekend alone.

The bloodshed is considered the most serious since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in Rakhine in 2012.

For years, members of the Muslim minority have been using Thailand as a transit point to enter Muslim Malaysia and beyond.

A law passed in Myanmar in 1982 denied Rohingya -- many of whom have lived in Myanmar for generations -- citizenship, making them stateless, removing their freedom of movement, access to education and services, and allowing for arbitrary confiscation of property.