Rohingya Muslims voice fears over coronavirus outbreak at Myanmar's “apartheid” camps
Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya Muslims have expressed fears of coronavirus outbreak reaching their overcrowded camps in conflict-wracked Rakhine state, where they face state-sponsored violence and apartheid-like conditions.
"We are extremely worried about the virus because we are living in limbo and it won't be easy to control," media outlets quoted Rohingya leader Kyaw Kyaw as saying.
About 130,000 Rohingya Muslims live in what rights group Amnesty International describes as "apartheid" conditions in camps around Sittwe, the capital of country’s western Rakhine state.
The city has recorded 48 COVID-19 cases in the past week, making up more than 10 percent of the about 400 cases so far registered in Myanmar.
On Friday, authorities in Myanmar imposed a night-time curfew in Sittwe due to a surge in local coronavirus cases.
The Rohingya Muslims say they are deeply worried about the spread of the virus and a prolonged lockdown in the troubled region.
"But if the lockdown is for a long time, we will... need help," Kyaw Kyaw said, adding that everyone in the camps had locked themselves indoors.
Authorities visited the Thae Chaung camp this week to talk about social distancing, which is an impossible there as at least 10 Rohingya families typically squeeze into a single house.
Sittwe's streets were empty Sunday, with masked residents encountering barricaded roads as they tried to run errands. Street vendors hawked plastic face shields and surgical masks.
Myanmar's Rakhine, home to persecuted Rohingya Muslim minorities, came to global attention in 2017 when more than 750,000 Rohingyas, mostly women and children, fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape a military crackdown that UN investigators have said was carried out with “genocidal intent.” Bangladesh was already hosting some 200,000 Rohingya when the exodus began.
The violence against the persecuted Rohingya Muslims has also seen Myanmar accused of "genocide" at the UN's top court in The Hague.
Myanmar has vowed to conduct its own investigations of massive abuses against the Rohingya, claiming that international justice mechanisms violate its sovereignty.
Thousands of Rohingya Muslims remain in Myanmar, living under apartheid-like conditions, confined to camps and villages and denied access to healthcare and education.
The Rohingya have inhabited Rakhine for centuries, but the state denies them citizenship. Bangladesh refuses to grant them citizenship, too.
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