Accessibility links

Breaking News

Doctors without Borders Partially Resumes Activities in Burma


The international aid group Doctors Without Borders says it has resumed some of its activities after being ordered Friday to halt all operations in Burma, also known as Myanmar, following a controversy involving Rohingya Muslims.

After negotiations with the government, the group, known by its French acronym MSF, said in a statement Saturday that it can again offer services, including HIV-AIDS treatment in Kachin and Shan states, as well as in the Rangoon region. MSF clinics in Rakhine state remain closed.

The aid group is the largest provider of HIV drugs in Burma, supplying treatment to 30,000 people.

Earlier, the government criticized the group's public comments that more than 40 Rohingya were killed in an attack in the remote northern part of the state last month. The government insists that only one Buddhist policeman died.



Burma's government refuses to officially recognize the Rohingya Muslim minority. It says members of any officially recognized minority must be able to prove their ancestors lived in Burma before the British invaded Rakhine in 1823.

Many of Burma's hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims say their ancestors have lived in Burma for generations; but, the impoverished minority group lacks the documentation to prove it.
XS
SM
MD
LG