KUALA LUMPUR: The United Nations has reported that 10 aid workers, including some UN staff, have been arrested in Western Myanmar, as international rights organizations have warned of mass arrests of the minority Rohingya Muslim community in the area. Over the past month, dozens of Rohingya have been killed in Myanmar, in what many observers are calling a “massacre.” Protests, including on in Egypt, have spread across the world, demanding the Myanmar government end its discrimination of the Muslim minority. In a bulletin published on the situation in the violence-hit Rakhine state, the UN said humanitarian staff have been held for “questioning,” adding that Myanmar's government has failed to respond to queries about those detained. More than 80 people have been killed in a wave of communal violence between ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya that swept the state in June, forcing tens of thousands to flee as homes were torched and communities ripped apart. “At the moment, some 10 UN and INGO (international non-government organization) staff are kept in custody by the authorities of Rakhine state for questioning,” said a statement from the United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA.
