\nOctober 8, 2013<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\nRANGOON <\/b>\u2014 The UN agency for children\u2019s rights
\nhas called for an end to communal violence in west Burma, where clashes last
\nweek between Muslims and Buddhists left hundreds of people homeless.<\/span> <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nUnicef issued a statement on Tuesday urging an
\nend to violence in Arakan State, following the third major wave of communal
\nviolence to hit the state since last year. The clashes last week near the
\nsouthern town of Thandwe left five people dead and destroyed some 110 homes.<\/span> <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIn the two waves of unrest last year\u2014elsewhere
\nin Arakan State, in June and October\u2014more than 140,000 people were displaced,
\nand more than 105,000 were children affected by the violence, according to
\nstatistics from Unicef, which is providing aid locally.<\/span> <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cWe are concerned the inter-communal violence
\nis spreading in the whole country,\u201d Bertrand Bainvel, a Unicef spokesman in
\nRangoon, told The Irrawaddy. Anti-Muslim riots have also broken out in several
\nlocations across Burma this year.<\/span> <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nBainvel said the violence could affect the
\ncountry\u2019s ability to promote peace and stay united in the long term, amid a
\ntransition to democracy after decades of military rule. Of the unrest, he said,
\n\u201cfirst and foremost, if affects children.\u201d<\/span> <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cIt is difficult for them to understand what is
\ngoing on. It is psychologically very difficult.\u201d<\/span> <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nUnicef, which has provided assistance in Arakan
\nState for education, nutrition and health, as well as psychosocial support,
\nsays the unrest has made it nearly impossible for many affected children to
\ncontinue their education or access health care. \u201cEven if they manage to go to
\nschool, it is difficult for them to concentrate on learning because they will
\nhear about the burning, shooting or adults speaking about violence,\u201d the Unicef
\nspokesman said. \u201cEven if their houses weren\u2019t burned, maybe their neighbors\u2019
\nhomes were.\u201d<\/span> <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIn temporary camps for displaced families near
\nSittwe, the state capital, about 85,000 children are 18 years old or younger.
\nThese include both Muslims and ethnic Arakanese Buddhists.<\/span> <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nUnicef operates a temporary learning center for
\ndisplaced children in camps in Sittwe as well as nearby Myaybon, Pauktaw and
\nKyauktaw townships, but only 7,500 children aged 11 to 14 have access to it.
\nUnicef says another 1,000 children will soon be able to attend.<\/span> <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nFarther north in Kachin State, where clashes
\ncontinue between ethnic rebel armed groups and the government army, 8,000
\nchildren between the ages of 6 and 9 attend schools in rebel-controlled
\nterritory. Unicef does not have other data on the number of children affected
\nby conflicts elsewhere in the country due to government restrictions on
\ntraveling to those areas.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An ethnic Rohingya boy and woman eat at a camp for displaced Muslim families in Arakan State. (Photo: JPaing \/ The Irrawaddy) By Nyein Nyein Irrawaddy News October 8, 2013 RANGOON \u2014 The UN agency for children\u2019s rights has called for an end to communal violence in west Burma, where clashes last week between Muslims […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oct_exclude_from_cache":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,236],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-news","category-rohingya-news-at-globe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rohingyapost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rohingyapost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rohingyapost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rohingyapost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rohingyapost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rohingyapost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22218,"href":"https:\/\/www.rohingyapost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22186\/revisions\/22218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rohingyapost.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rohingyapost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rohingyapost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rohingyapost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}