YANGON: Myanmar forces are conducting new rounds of “clearance operations” in conflict-hit Rakhine state after four local Buddhists were attacked and two killed, the commander-in-chief’s office said Thursday, with one of the incidents blamed on Rohingya Muslims.
The violence occurred around the evening of December 17 along Pyu Ma creek in northern Rakhine state’s Maungdaw township, the same area where forces waged a bloody crackdown against the Rohingya last year.
More than 720,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after Myanmar launched clearance operations in August 2017, and UN investigators want the country’s top brass prosecuted for genocide for alleged abuses carried out during the expulsion.
Myanmar said it was defending itself against Rohingya militants who attacked police posts and has denied almost all claims of atrocities.
But the commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing’s office said in the statement posted to his official website Thursday that security forces were active again and had been carrying out “area clearance operations along Pyu Ma Creek.”
The post said the activity was sparked after two ethnic Rakhine Buddhist men did not return from fishing and were later found on the creek bank with their throats slit.
On the same day two members of another ethnic Buddhist minority were attacked while fishing along the creek by six men “speaking Bengali language,” but they escaped and were treated at a local hospital.
The post said authorities did not know the identities of the attackers.
Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as one of its national races and refers to them as Bengali to falsely imply they are newly arrived immigrants from Bangladesh.
Tensions are high in northern Rakhine as the government seeks to kickstart a repatriation process but Rohingya in Bangladesh have refused to take part without being guaranteed rights, citizenship and safety.
The Rohingya still in Rakhine are increasingly isolated, and several boats full of men, women and children trying to flee the state have been stopped in recent weeks and turned around.
The minority has long been persecuted and subjected to apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine, with lack of access to health care and freedom of movement curtailed.
Many fear that in their absence Myanmar is changing the landscape of their former homes for good, erasing all signs of their local history.
Myanmar forces conduct ‘clearance operations’ after two killed in Rakhine state
Myanmar forces conduct ‘clearance operations’ after two killed in Rakhine state
- Myanmar forces are conducting new rounds of “clearance operations” in conflict-hit Rakhine state
- Myanmar said it was defending itself against Rohingya militants who attacked police posts
US halts some Medicaid payments to Minnesota, alleging fraud
- Human rights advocates and Trump critics say the administration is using fraud allegations as an excuse to target immigrants and political opponents
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is withholding more than a quarter of a million dollars of Medicaid funding from Minnesota, saying the state allowed the theft of federal funds intended for social-welfare programs in the state.
US Vice President JD Vance and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who oversees the Medicaid health care program for low-income households, announced the temporary halt at a joint press conference on Wednesday, where they criticized Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s administration for not doing enough to combat fraud.
“We are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously,” Vance said.
Walz fired back on social media, accusing the administration of attempting to punish Democratic-run states.
“This has nothing to do with fraud,” he said in a post on X. “This is a campaign of retribution. Trump is weaponizing the entirety of the federal government to punish blue states like Minnesota.”
Republican President Donald Trump’s administration has used fraud allegations in Minnesota as part of its justification for a months-long immigration crackdown in the state, during which federal agents shot and killed two US citizens, and for freezing funds meant for social programs.
Administration officials have pointed to a scandal that began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Department of Justice indicted 47 people for allegedly defrauding $250 million from a federally funded child nutrition program.
Walz, a Democrat, said the latest withholding of Medicaid funding would be devastating for families, veterans and people with disabilities.
GOVERNMENT WITHHOLDS $259 MILLION IN MEDICAID FUNDS
Oz said the federal government had paused the payment of $259 million of deferred Medicaid payments to Minnesota following an audit, and would hold on to the funds until the state government proposes “a comprehensive corrective action plan.” He added that Walz had 60 days to respond.
Vance and Oz also announced a six-month nationwide moratorium blocking durable medical equipment suppliers — including for prosthesis, orthotics and other items — from enrolling in Medicaid, saying such suppliers had become a source of fraud.
Oz, citing an estimate from the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation, said $300 billion a year is spent nationwide on health care that is “fraudulent, abusive or wasteful.” Of that, the federal portion is around $100 billion, he said.
The administration will soon announce additional actions targeting other states, he said, citing issues with health care fraud in southern Florida, California and New York.
Trump has tapped Vance to spearhead an administration “war on fraud” and created the new role of assistant attorney general for national fraud enforcement to lead the Justice Department’s investigation and prosecution of fraud that affects the federal government and federally funded programs.
Trump has repeatedly attempted to withhold funding from Democratic-led states, although such cuts have frequently been blocked by federal judges who found the actions potentially retaliatory or legally flawed.
Human rights advocates and Trump critics say the administration is using fraud allegations as an excuse to target immigrants and political opponents.
