MOSCOW (Sputnik) — EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that she was expecting the government of Myanmar to make the necessary steps to address both reasons and consequences of the devastating inter-ethnic conflict in the state of Rakhine within a week.
The state of Rakhine in western Myanmar has seen a build-up of violence since the beginning of August, although the conflict itself is decades old. The government forces of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar have been clashing with Muslim Rohingya insurgents, with many civilians caught in the crossfire.
"As I stated in my statement a few days ago, the priority is now to obtain immediate humanitarian access again, and to address in parallel the root causes of the conflict by implementing the Annan Advisory Commission recommendations to this end. On both accounts we were reassured that there will be implementing steps this week, which I expect to happen," Mogherini said in a statement released on Monday.
The Myanmar's government forces have been carrying out an operation against militants in Rakhine since the end of August in response to coordinated attacks on several police posts carried out on August 25.
A commission, led by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, released its final report in late August, suggesting that the government of Myanmar review the 1982 Citizenship Law, which fails to mention Rohingya as one of the national races, thus denying citizenship to them.
