Arakan News Agency
The Turkish Red Crescent signed an agreement with the Myanmar Red Cross to strengthen their current cooperation in order to overcome the humanitarian crisis in Arakan province, western Myanmar.
Turkish Red Crescent director Mr. KEREM KINIK, who is visiting Myanmar’s Yangon city, said on Wednesday that they had provided humanitarian aid to the fleeing Arakan Muslims to Bangladesh as a result of violence in the province since August 25.
“We have decided to deliver humanitarian aid in Myanmar as well, so we have brought our message to the Myanmar officials through the Red Cross,” KINIK said.
He referred to the Red Crescent signing a cooperation agreement with the Myanmar Red Cross after the violence in Arakan in 2012 and that the two institutions had been working together since then.
He said the Red Crescent plans to set up Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh within three to four months.
He added that they plan to hand over the camps and permanent facilities that will be set up there to the Bengali authorities for use by Bengali citizens after the return of Rohingya refugees to their country.
Kinik said that under the three-year agreement, the Turkish Red Crescent will provide support to the Myanmar Red Cross to increase its capacity and the possibility of Red Crescent staff working on projects in Myanmar.
“In the first phase, we will start providing infrastructure support worth 1.5 million Turkish lira (about 420,000 dollars) to establish a distribution network for aid, transport trucks and aid stores in 10 areas in Arakan province,” he said.
Since Aug. 25, Myanmar’s army and Buddhist militias have been committing crimes, attacks and brutal massacres against the Rohingya Muslim of Arakan, which has killed thousands and displaced tens of thousands of innocent people, local activists said.
Since that date, some 480,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed the Arakan region, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, earlier.
On September 19th, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called on the UN Security Council to pressure the government of Myanmar to stop ethnic cleansing of Rohingya.
