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A6 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 26 June 2024
U.N. World Food Program decries looting and burning of its

warehouse in western Myanmar combat zone

BANGKOK (AP) — The Unit- alongside them.
ed Nations’ food agency However, Nay San Lwin,
on Tuesday strongly con- a co-founder of the Free
demned the looting of food Rohingya Coalition, an
supplies and burning of advocacy group based
one of its warehouses over outside of Myanmar, said
the weekend in a war-torn in a message to The Associ-
area in Myanmar’s western ated Press that members of
state of Rakhine. both the Arakan Army and
A statement released by Myanmar’s military had
the World Food Program been separately involved
said the destroyed building in the looting and burn-
in Rakhine’s Maungdaw ing of the WFP warehouse,
township held 1,175 metric which held more than
tons (1,295 U.S. tons) of food 20,000 bags of rice.
and supplies — enough to Maungdaw, in northern
sustain 64,000 people for a Rakhine and close to the
month in case of an emer- country’s border with Ban-
gency. gladesh, appears to be on
The incident, which hap- the verge of being seized
pened on Sunday, makes by the Arakan Army.
even more desperate a Several days ago, the guer-
humanitarian crisis caused rilla group urged the resi-
by bitter fighting between dents of Maungdaw, who
Myanmar’s military govern- are mostly from the Muslim
ment and guerrillas of the Rohingya ethnic minor-
Arakan Army belonging Demonstrators hold papers printed with Aung San Suu Kyi’s famous quote ‘’The only real prison ity, to evacuate from their
is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear’’ as they rally to mark her 79th birthday in
the Rakhine ethnic minor- Launglon township in Tanintharyi region, Myanmar, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. houses urgently for their
ity, which seeks autonomy Associated Press safety.
from the central govern- In May, the Arakan Army
ment. government of Aung San unmet need for humanitar- secure access is provided took over another Rakhine
The wider context of the Suu Kyi. ian assistance. for the delivery of vital as- city, which like Maungdaw
fighting is Myanmar’s na- The fiercest fighting is cur- The WFP also called “on sistance to those in urgent has a majority Rohingya
tionwide civil war, in which rently taking place in Rakh- all parties to the conflict to need.” population. At the time,
pro-democracy guerrillas ine. The U.N. says that more uphold their obligations un- The statement did not the military government
and ethnic minority armed than 3 million people have der International Humani- identify the perpetrators and the Arakan Army each
forces battle the country’s been displaced nation- tarian Law to ensure that of the looting. The Arakan blamed the other for burn-
military rulers, who took wide by fighting since the humanitarian facilities and Army blamed the attack ing down most of the city
power in 2021 after the 2021 army takeover, caus- assets are respected and on army soldiers and local and forcing its residents to
army ousted the elected ing a massive and largely protected, and safe and Muslims said to be fighting leave.q

Puerto Rico sues former officials accused of corruption to recover

more than $30M in public funds

By CORAL MURPHY MAR- age caused by those who Also sued are eight former one year in federal prison Justice Department sued
COS have illegally appropriated mayors including Félix Del- in March after pleading more than 30 convicts for
Associated Press public funds,” said Domin- gado of Cataño and Án- guilty to accepting bribes corruption with the purpose
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) go Emanuelli, the U.S. terri- gel Pérez of Guaynabo. in exchange for awarding of recovering public funds
— Puerto Rico’s Justice De- tory’s justice secretary. Delgado was sentenced to millions of dollars’ worth of and demanding repara-
partment announced Tues- municipal contracts. Pérez tion for the damages they
day that it is suing at least was sentenced to more caused to the Puerto Rican
30 ex-government officials than five years in federal people,” Emanuelli said.
accused of corruption to prison in February after be- The department also sued
recover more than $30 mil- ing found guilty of bribery two companies: J. R. As-
lion in public funds. and extorsion. phalt, Inc., and Waste
Among those sued are Their attorneys could not Collection Corp. Federal
three former legislators, be immediately reached authorities have previously
including María Milagros for comment. accused them of being
Charbonier, who was sen- Puerto Rico’s Justice De- linked to government cor-
tenced in May to eight partment had long been ruption cases.
years in federal prison after accused of not cracking The Department of Justice
being found guilty of theft, down sufficiently on wide- stated that, according to
bribery and a kickback spread government cor- the civil procedural rules of
scheme. “We are going ruption on the island, with the U.S. territory, it could im-
to recover the Puerto Ri- federal authorities taking plement provisional mea-
can people’s money and A Puerto Rican national flag flies in front of the Capitol building the reins in recent years. sures to recover assets and
claim an amount that to- in San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 29, 2015. “For the first time on the restrict the defendants’
tals three times the dam- Associated Press island, the Puerto Rican ability to sell property.q