MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The government of Myanmar has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to increase the scale of humanitarian activities in the country in connection with the conflict in the state of Rakhine, ICRC Director of Operations Dominik Stillhart told Sputnik on Thursday.
"We've been called by the Government of Myanmar to step up our humanitarian response, and this is precisely what we are doing now, both in Rakhine, which is in Myanmar, but in Bangladesh, where some of these people are stranded in the no man's land between the two countries, so we are working on both sides of the border together with the Myanmar Red Cross in Myanmar and together with the Bangladeshi Red Crescent in Bangladesh," Stillhart said.
He noted that the ICRC was very concerned with the situation in Rakhine. ICRC is currently providing emergency humanitarian assistance to 4,000 people who were isolated as a result of clashes on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, Stillhart explained, adding that the organization provided drinking water and food for those in need.
Representatives of the indigenous nationalities of Myanmar have said they consider the Rohingya people, which have been relocated to Rakhine from Bengal by British colonial authorities in the 19th century, illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
The nationalist organizations of Myanmar's indigenous peoples, whose stance is popular in the country, have demanded that all illegal migrants, especially Muslims, be expelled from Myanmar.
