Rohingya Muslims in dire conditions and lack of medical supplies

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - In Myanmar, the Rohingya Muslims, who are accommodated in government camps, forcefully face dire conditions and lack of medical supplies.“The situation is pretty dire in this camp, particularly with the lack of medical supplies. We have to also remember that this camp that I was allowed to get into is probably one of the best camps in one of the best conditions,” David Mathew told Press TV in an exclusive interview on Saturday. Mathew reiterated that 40,000 injured Muslims are being kept in the camps with only enough food to survive, but very low medical supplies for their treatment.Many children are suffering from diarrhea-related diseases and many have already died from preventable diseases, he added.“The military is very tightly controlling what they and we are allowed to see...In other camps, which…[accommodate] tens of thousands [of], of course, Muslims that have been displaced -- In these other camps, the conditions are far, far worse,” he went on to say.The Myanmar Muslims are victims of ethnic cleansing as only 6,000 out of 70,000 Muslims that used to be in Sittwe, the capital of the Rakhine state, now remain in the area.The security forces and Buddhists extremists have also torched Muslims’ houses and mosques violently in the state, he continued.“I’ve seen the villages that have been burnt myself. They’ve been completely razed to the ground -- we’re talking about a square kilometer of villages. A number of pieces of land, a square kilometer, I can see have been completely destroyed by the military, by the government, as well as the police together,” Mathew concluded.Reports say some 650 Rohingyas have been killed in the Rakhine state in the west of the country in recent months. This is while 1,200 others are missing and 80,000 more have been displaced.The Buddhist-majority government of Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingyas, whom, it claims, are not natives and classifies them as illegal migrants, although, the Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.The UN human rights authorities point the finger of blame at Myanmarese security forces, who are believed to have been targeting the Muslims rather than bringing the violence to an end.The United Nations says decades of discrimination have left the Rohingyas stateless, with Myanmar implementing restrictions on their movement and withholding land rights, education, and public services from them. The UN has also described the Muslim community as the Palestine of Asia and one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Interview: http://217.218.67.244:8181/video/site%20video/08-11-2012/david%20mathews.flv