Rohingya crisis: US to give over $185 mn in additional aid

New York, Sept 25: The United States, which has been expressing its discontent over the displacement of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and Bangladesh, has almost doubled its aid for the displaced, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Monday, September 24, as Great Britain hosted a ministerial meeting on the continuing crisis.

Myanmar faced worldwide criticism after its army launched a crackdown in the western state of Rakhine in 2017 following attacks by Rohingya militants on lawkeepers and military posts. Over seven lakh stateless minority people fled across the border into Bangladesh.

UN-mandated investigation later said that the army carried out mass killings and gang rapes of the Rohingyas with intent of genocides. Myanmar, however, said the findings were "one sided" and defended the counter-insurgency operation as legitimate.

Ambassador Haley said the US will give over $185 million in additional humanitarian assistance and of that $156 million would go to the refugees and host communities in Bangladesh. It will mean that the US's aid for its total humanitarian aid for the crisis reached nearly $389 million in one year.

"We continue to call on the Burmese government to do more to hold those who have engaged in ethnic cleansing accountable for their atrocities? end the violence, and allow full humanitarian and free press access," Haley was quoted as saying in a statement.

Calling the US "generous", Haley said it would going to show its generous face to only those shared its values and wanted to work with it and not those who are "counterproductive".

The closed-door ministerial meeting on the crisis was hosted by British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on the sidelines of the annual UN gathering here on Monday. Hunt went to Myanmar last week and said the government must ensure that those responsible for the crimes are not let off the hook, Reuters reported.

The Myanmar army chief, on the other hand, warned against any kind of foreign interference, the report added.