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Israel Reportedly Arming Myanmar Amid Ongoing Rohingya Crackdown

© REUTERS / Simon LewisA Myanmar border guard police officers stand guard in Buthidaung, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar (File)
A Myanmar border guard police officers stand guard in Buthidaung, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar (File) - Sputnik International
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According to the Middle East Eye news outlet, Israel is adding fuel to the violent Rohingya crisis in Myanmar by selling arms to the government. The report comes as the conflict which has already seen hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands displaced is gaining momentum.

According to human rights groups and Myanmar officials, the Jewish state has supplied over 100 tanks, motorboats and other weapons used by Myanmar’s military against the Rohingya Muslims.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on Wednesday that arms deals between Tel Aviv and Yangon were in full swing despite UN and EU embargoes on the sale of arms to Myanmar.

Myanmar police officers patrol along the border fence between Myanmar and Bangladesh in Maungdaw, Rakhine State, Myanmar. (File) - Sputnik International
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Myanmar Allegedly Laying Mines on Bangladesh Border Amid Rohingya Muslim Exodus
Meanwhile, Israel’s High Court of Justice is going to consider a petition by activists urging the government to halt all arms exports to Myanmar.

The petition was submitted in January, after a delegation of Israeli officials visited Yangon to negotiate arms shipments to Myanmar.

Israel is not the only country supplying arms to Myanmar though.

"Last year the British government spent over £300,000 of taxpayers' money in training the Myanmar military whose commander-in-chief, General Min Aung Hlaing, was welcomed by EU military chiefs eager to engage in arms sales and training," Penny Green, director of the International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary University in London, told The Middle East Eye (MEE) online news portal.

On Tuesday, the United Nations secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, appealed to Myanmar to end its violent suppression of Rohingya Muslims which has already forced more than 120,000 Rohingya people to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.

The Rohingya conflict in Myanmar, which caught its second wind in August 2017, appears to be a crisis long in the making: the conflict between the country’s Buddhists and Muslims actually originates from the 19th century.

In this photo taken on May 20, 2015 shows Rohingya migrants resting on a boat off the coast near Kuala Simpang Tiga in Indonesia's East Aceh district of Aceh province before being rescued. Indonesia's foreign minister demanded answers from Canberra about claims Australian officials paid thousands of dollars to turn a boat back to Indonesia after Prime Minister Tony Abbott refused to deny the allegations - Sputnik International
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UN Secretary-General Urges Myanmar to Give Rohingya People Legal Status
The latest flare-up between Myanmar’s Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslims, widely viewed in Myanmar as newcomers and outcasts, erupted in Rakhine state in August and has prompted a wave of protests across the world over what has been dubbed disproportionate use of force by the government.

This brings to 233,000 the total number of Rohingya who have sought refuge in Bangladesh since October 2016, when Rohingya insurgents staged similar, but smaller attacks on security posts.

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