Last week Bangladesh authorities said around 8,000 more Rohingya had fled into Bangladesh amid fighting between the military and the AA.
Spoljaric and Min Aung Hlaing “exchanged views on the undertakings of the ICRC to provide humanitarian aid in Myanmar, the need to cooperate with relevant ministries”, the state-run The Global New Light of Myanmar reported.
In June 2021 then ICRC president Peter Maurer met Min Aung Hlaing in Myanmar and requested the charity be allowed to resume “humanitarian visits and activities” in Myanmar’s prisons paused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Discussions on the resumption of prison visits by ICRC staff “are still ongoing”, the ICRC’s media office told AFP on Tuesday.
More than 20,000 political prisoners are languishing in Myanmar’s jails as a result of the junta’s crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.
In response to a question on whether Spoljaric had asked to meet detained democracy leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi, the media office said: “We are still advocating to resume our detention visits, and supporting their families whenever possible.”
The situation in Myanmar is “deeply alarming”, with clashes, destruction of infrastructure and restrictions on movement hampering humanitarian access, the ICRC said in its report for the six months to June this year.
The “response to the increasing humanitarian needs remains insufficient”, it added.
More than 2.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes since the coup, according to the United Nations.
