Thursday, February 27, 2014

MSF-Holland’s Clinics Shut Down By Burmese Government


SITTWE – All MSF-Hoallnd (AZG) activities are officially shut down by both Union and State Governments, according to Yakhine Sate Governmetn’s Spokesperson Hla Thein today.

“We called in the MSF’s representatives in Sittwe just yesterday and told them to stop all their activities here in Arakan,”  declared Hla Thein today. 

The State government’s announcement came after five consecutive days of mass protests against MSF-Holland (AZG) by thousands and thousands of enraged Yakhine-Buddhists in Sittwe and Maungdaw.

When asked what were the reasons for shutting down MSF-Holland (AZG), Hla Thein who is also the Attorney General for Yakhine State Government refused to describe. But he explained that since both Health Ministry and Home Ministry of the Union Government informed the Yakhine Sate Government of their refusal to extend the MOU with MSF-Holland (AZG) his Yakhin State Government has to shut MSF’s operations down in Arakan.

“Union Health Ministry was the one having signed MOU with MSF-Holland and Union Home Ministry is the one allowing MSF-Holland to officially register as an INGO operating in our country.

Now the Health Ministry decided not to extend the MOU with MSF-Holland and the Home Ministry cancelled their registration. We in the Yakhine State Government were involved in none of those official things and so we decided to shut all MSF operations down here in our Yakhine State,” explained Hla Thein the Attorney General of Yakhine State Government.

But the copy of the relevant Directive issued by the Union Police’s Special Branch HQ to the Yakhine State Police’s SB on February-26 instructed that the Union Government is about to: 1) cancel the registration of MSF-Holland (AZG) as an INGO in Arakan, 2) not extend the MOU with MSF-Holland, and 3) order Yakhine State Government not to allow the MSF-Holland’s personnel operating in Yakhine State.

The police Special Branch’s detective also detailed the reason for taking adverse action against MSF-Holland as: 1) MSF-Holland (AZG) is causing the collapse of Security, Law and Order, and Regional Peace in Yakhine State, and 2) MSF-Holland is constantly inciting the illegal Bengali-Muslim populace to create racial and religious unrest in the Yakhine State.

The police directive also singled out the MSF-Holland’s letter to the Yakhine Sate Department of Health on the so-called Du-chi-yar-dan Massacre as false accusations inciting racial and religious unrest in Arakan.

Special Branch Police's Directive to closely watch MSF-Holland's activities in Burma.
(The Police-Directive also details the reasons for shutting down MSF clinics in Arakan.)
All MSF Clinics in Arakan Shut Down by Yakhine State Government

All clinics being operated by the Holland-based Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) aka AZG (Artsen zonder Grenzen) in the Arakan have been shut down since this morning February-27.

Union Government at Naypyidaw has informed Yakhine State Government in Sittwe yesterday morning that the MOU with MSF-Holland has not been extended and the registration of MSF-Holland as an INGO has been cancelled. At 5:30 pm yesterday MSF representatives were called in for an urgent meeting with the Yakhine State Government.

The details and agenda of that meeting has not been released. But all MSF-Holland’s health clinics in Arkan are closed today while their regular patients have been lining up and waiting outside the closed clinics.

For last 20 years MSF-Holland (AZG) has treated more than 500,000 patients annually and also has special programs for treating HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis patients. And since 2005 more than 1.2 millions Malaria patients have also been treated by MSF-Holland n(AZG).

Instead of concentrating more on their good work of treating patients MSF-Holland has been extremely active in their political advocacy work in highly-complex and extremely-volatile situation of illegal Bengali-Muslims seen as the existential threat to predominantly-Buddhist Burma.

The fact that only 3 out of more than 30 foreign-personnel working for MSF in Burma are the doctors clearly indicates the political-activist nature of MSF-Holland and that was the downfall of MSF-Holland (AZG) in our Burma. Instead of their official name “Doctors without Borders” MSF-Holland is widely known as “Borders without Doctors” among Burma’s disgruntled Yakhine-Buddhists.



Related posts at following links:
MSF-Holland (AZG) Kicked Out of Burma Soon?
Golfing with Generals in Myanmar: MSF-Holland (AZG)
Is Pro-Muslim MSF-Holland (AZG) Behind the Troubles in Arakan?