Myanmar plans to prevent US official from entering Arakan conflict zone

Myanmar’s government authorities said on Friday they would not allow Patrick Murphy, assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, to enter the conflict zone of Arakan province in the west this weekend.

A local official in Arakan state, as saying Murphy would visit Akyab, capital of Arakan state, but would not be allowed to enter the northern region where the conflict is located, without giving reasons.

“Murphy will meet with officials from Naypidaw (capital of Myanmar) as well as attend the speech by leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday,” he said.

The US State Department commissioned Murphy to shift Washington’s concern about the situation in Myanmar to Suu Kyi, as well as exert some pressure to ensure humanitarian access to the Arakan conflict area, the source said.

The Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs is scheduled to arrive in Myanmar later this week.

The Rohingya Muslims in Arakan province have been subjected to genocide by the Myanmar army since August 25th.

There is no clear statistics on the victims of the genocide, but a human rights activist in Arakan told Anatolia that they had spotted 7,500 people dead and 6,541 wounded from Rohingya since the start of the genocide campaign until September 6th.