Washington - The US is withdrawing military assistance units from Myanmar over the country's treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state. The state department said it had also dropped travel waivers for Myanmar military officials, and was considering economic sanctions. Almost a million Rohingya people have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh, says Bangladesh's envoy to the UN. Myanmar's military says it is fighting militants and not targeting civilians. "It is imperative that any individuals or entities responsible for atrocities be held accountable," the US state department said. "We express our gravest concern with recent events in Myanmar's Rakhine state and the violent, traumatic abuses Rohingya and other communities have endured." Last week, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said his country held Myanmar's military leadership "accountable" for its crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority, adding that the US was "extraordinarily concerned" by the situation. The United Nations has called the violence a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". More than 600,000 refugees have crossed the border from Myanmar since late August, Bangladesh's UN ambassador said, joining the 300,000 or so which had fled earlier outbreaks of violence. He claimed thousands were still entering his country every day.(FA)
