REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, YANGON - About 7.5 tonnes of aid from Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) for ethnic Rohingya in Rakhine, Myanmar is hampered. Arrived in Yangon three days ago, the aids --consist of towels, buckets, soaps, saroongs, and blankets-- has not yet distributed to refugees in Sittwe, Rakhine.

The Head of Disaster Management Division of PMI, Arifin M Hadi, said Myanmar government had not allowed the team and its aid to enter the conflict location. The coordinating meeting with Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS) generates that the distribution must be delayed.

"MRCS said that we must obtain the authorization from Myanmar government," Arifin said on Monday, reported by Muhammad Hafil from Republika.

Myanmar government reasoned that PMI's visa was inadequate for entering Sittwe. Arifin said that the team respected the Myanmar decision. He explained that PMI needed travel document from Myanmar government.

As observed by Republika in Yangon, the conflict between Muslim Rohingya and ethnic Buddhist Rakhine did not affect much to the city. The street was peaceful and no pamphlet-war about Rakhine or Rohingya place on the street. While local and international newspapers in Myanmar did not mention about Rohingya issue. 

According to a newspaper seller in Yangon, no newspaper wrote about Rohingya. While nternet access for Rohingya's news is also hard to obtain in Yangon due to slow network of internet.

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