Activists: Burma's Foreign Aid Group Ban Puts Thousands at Risk

03/10/2014

SITTWE, BURMA — In western Burma’s Rakhine state, authorities asked international aid group Doctors Without Borders (known by its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF) to cease operations after accusations of aid bias. Activists say the ban will leave nearly 700,000 people without access to much needed medical care in the country's second-most impoverished region.
 
HIV-positive Ba Sein is also suffering from tuberculosis. He is living in close quarters with his wife and two children in a temporary camp for ethnic Muslim Rohingya on the outskirts of Sittwe.
 
Three months ago, doctors at a nearby clinic operated by Doctors Without Borders gave Ba Sein the diagnosis. But he cannot go in for his follow-ups because the clinic has closed.

Sittwe General Hospital is not far, but Ba Sein cannot travel there because security officers charge fees from the ethnic Rohingya minority. He said he has fevers every day, and wants to seek treatment but doesn't know where to go.

In this remote region of Burma, MSF has long been the primary source of reliable healthcare for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people. The group has been the primary responder to outbreaks of infectious diseases, and provides regular treatments for tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV.

But Doctors Without Borders drew controversy last month following an alleged attack on ethnic Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine state. MSF confirmed to international media that its doctors treated patients for wounds after a violent incident in Du Chee Ya Tar village. Human rights groups said at least 40 ethnic Rohingya were killed, a claim denied by the Burmese government.

The full article continues at http://www.voanews.com/content/burmas-ban-on-foreign-aid-group-puts-thousands-at-risk/1867860.html on Voice of America’s website.