MANDALAY (UCAN): Authorities in Myanmar shut down Internet services in the troubled Rakhine State amid claims by local Buddhists, who are seeking greater autonomy, of human rights’ abuses by the security forces.
 
The Ministry of Transport and Communications has directed four mobile service providers to temporarily shut down Internet access in nine townships and in neighboring Chin State. The order was effective from June 21.
 

MANDALAY (UCAN): “Solving the problem with arms will not lead to a solution, so both sides need to go to the negotiable table (and work) towards stability and peace,” Bishop Alexander Pyone Cho of Pyay, said, as he called on all parties to return to the negotiation table as fighting escalates in Myanmar’s a Rakhine State.
 
The bishop said tensions remain high between the military and the Arakan Army.
 

MANDALAY (UCAN): Ursula Mueller, the United Nations (UN) assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and deputy emergency relief coordinator, has called for unfettered humanitarian access to several crisis-hit states of Myanmar including the restive Rakhine state where large numbers of the Rohingya Muslim minority have fled security forces for Bangladesh since August 2017.
 

MANDALAY (UCAN): The government of Myanmar will start the repatriation of Hindu refugees to Rakhine on January 22.
 
At least 3,000 of an estimated 8,000 Hindus living in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Sittwe were internally displaced, while others crossed over to neighbouring Bangladesh when Muslim Rohingya fled the clearance operations of the Myanmar military.
 

YANGON (UCAN): The upcoming visit of Pope Francis to the Union of Myanmar and Bangladesh has sparked fears and hopes in both countries.
 
In Yangon, the bishops of Myanmar fear that he will mention the injustices faced by the Rohingya people over attempts to drive them from the country, while leaders of the Islamic faith hope that he will, at least in his articulated prayer.
 

MANDALAY (UCAN): Naypyidaw has denied visas to three members of a United Nations (UN) fact finding mission charged with an investigation into human rights violations against the Muslim Rohingya minority people by security forces in the Union of Myanmar.
 
Bishop Alexander Pyone Cho, from of Pyay in the troubled Rakhine State, said that when he read the news it was hard for him to believe it.
 

Mandalay (UCAN): Relief workers helping more than 300 people displaced by violence from a Muslim community in the Sagaing region in the northwest of the Union of Myanmar say they face critical shortages of food, clothing and other basic needs, after rioters from a Buddhist area burned homes and shops over the weekend of August 24 and 25.