A Myanmar minister had to face protests by Rohingyas as he went to a refugee camp in Bangladesh.
Social Welfare Minister Win Myint Aye is the first Myanmar official to go to the camps in southeastern district of Cox’s Bazar since the latest exodus.
The coastal district, which shares land border as well as a river with Myanmar, is now home to nearly 1.1 million Rohingyas after some 700,000 fled the northern Rakhine state following a military crackdown triggered by insurgents’ attack on police outposts in August.
The UN has described the army operation in Rohingya villages as ethnic cleansing. On Wednesday, Myanmar said it jailed seven soldiers for 10 years for Rohingya massacre.
Myanmar Minister Win Myint Aye arrived Dhaka after Wednesday midnight and flew to Cox’s Bazar in the morning.
Flanked by several Dhaka-based Asian and European diplomats, as soon as Aye arrived the Kutupalong camp, a group of Rohingyas started to demonstrate, said police.
“When the minister was approaching D-block of the camp, some Rohingyas started to demonstrate with a banner, raising slogan against Myanmar. We tried to prevent them but they attacked the police, when we had to charge baton to disperse them,” said local Ukhiya police’s OC Abul Khayer.
The demonstrators raised slogans holding a banner with a picture of Aye, which read that the minister was a ‘denier, whitewasher and collaborator of genocide of Rohingyas’.