Enlarge A European Union humanitarian envoy on Saturday voiced concern at the "dramatic deprivation" in Myanmar's camps for tens of thousands of people, mainly Muslims, made homeless by deadly unrest in Rakhine State.
Violence in Rakhine last year killed scores and displaced 140,000 people -- many from the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority -- prompting international concern about the state, which is now virtually segregated on religious lines.
After a visit to the area this week, Claus Sorensen, the head of the EU's humanitarian aid department (ECHO), said in a statement he was disturbed by the "dramatic deprivation of the affected communities and disrespect of fundamental rights".
He also voiced alarm at threats by "extremist elements" against aid workers trying to deliver basic necessities to the camps, echoing growing international concern over the issue.
His comments on the trip, which concludes Saturday, come after Myanmar on Thursday said it would not grant citizenship to people identifying themselves as Rohingya, despite pressure from the United Nations.
Myanmar sees the Rohingya in Rakhine as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
Many in the Buddhist-majority nation view the group with hostility, referring to them as "Bengalis" -- an often pejorative term.
Sorensen said he recognised there was "sensitivity" over the word Rohingya, but urged the country to move beyond "labels".
Unrest in Rakhine -- and the deprivations that have followed -- have prompted thousands of Muslims to flee Myanmar in rickety and overcrowded boats trying to reach Malaysia and further afield.
But scores have died or gone missing in choppy seas.
"They are not all going to go on the boats and disappear in the ocean... it's a scandal," Sorensen told reporters in Yangon, estimating there were at least 800,000 Rohingya in the region.
"They will be still there. So we have to find the way to solve this issue so that it will not be a threat against the overall development of Myanmar."
Violence against Muslims spread beyond Rakhine this year, with several other outbreaks of religious conflict that have overshadowed the nation's widely-praised reform drive.
The EU on Saturday said it was boosting aid to those displaced in Rakhine and northern Kachin -- where some 115,000 people have been forced into camps by fighting between the army and ethnic rebels.
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Featured Slideshow
On the news that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's lifted the military ban on women in combat, GlobalPost took a look at women's wartime roles around the world.
Women combat afghanistan
Female Afghan National Police cadets train at the shooting range of the Kabul Police Academy on November 14, 2012 in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Kabul police academy graduates 500 male officers each year, after 4 years of training, and around 30 women after 6 months of training.
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Women combat australia
Australian soldiers Captain Veena (Big Red) Cochrane (R) and flight officer Christine Edey (L) prepare to board a Sea King helicopter at Henderson International Aiprort near Honiara on July 25, 2003. While Australian women can not serve in many positions qualified as "direct combat," they can can serve in combat units.
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Women combat canada
A Canadian female soldier takes part in a training exercise in July 2007 at the Joint Multinational Readiness Centre (JMRC) near the southern German town of Hohenfels. Since a 1989 tribunal order, women have become more fully integrated into the Canadian military, serving in combat and commanding large infantry units.
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Trainee bodyguards — most with previous military experience — listen to instructions at the Genghis Security Academy in Beijing on Jan. 17, 2013. As of 2008, around 7.5 percent of China's People's Liberation Army personnel were women, although thier work is largely limited to non-combat roles.
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Women combat colombia
Female soldiers take part in a training on May 14, 2009 in Tolemaida military base, Colombia. The first sixty-two women to become cadets ever in Colombia were taking combat training, after which they would be in a position to command troops.
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Women combat germany
Two female German soldiers from the Quick Reaction Force (QRF) at Camp Marmal in Mazar e Sharif in Afghanistan on June 30, 2008. Women have served in German combat units since a 2001 European Court of Justice ruling.
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Women combat israel 1
Israeli Army female soldier Yael Suissa (L) competes in a push-up competition with US Army sergeant Aaron Thomas Feb. 4, 2003 during a joint US-Israeli military exercise in the Negev desert in southern Israel.
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Women combat israel 3
An Israeli soldier from the Karakal Battalion in action during training on Dec. 14, 2010. The Karakal is a mixed-sex battalion formed in 2004, with men and women serving together in this combat unit, based in the Negev desert on the borders with Egypt and Jordan. Israeli women, like men, are drafted and can serve in combat.
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Women combat korea
Female cadets participate in basic military training for reserve officers at military camp on Jan. 19, 2011 in Seoul, South Korea. The Ministry of National Defense in South Korea agreed two years ago to admit women into its college-based Reserve Officers' Training Program for the first time since the program began in 1963. Women can serve in combat in the South Korean military, and there have even been female combat generals.
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Women combat pakistan
Pakistani Air Force cadet Nadia Gul, 21, stands in front of a mural at the Pakistani Air Force Academy Oct. 6, 2005, in Risalpur, Pakistan. Gul, the top student in her class of 64 at the academy, was one of only eight female cadets in training to be fighter pilots in the Pakistani Air Force. Pakistani women are able to train and serve in combat roles.
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Women combat uk 2
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Women combat us 1
Members of the US Naval Academy Freshman class low crawl under obstacles at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland on May 17, 2005.
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Women combat us 2
A US woman soldier of the 3rd Infantry Division practices life-saving skills during a combat lifesaver course in Camp Taji, northwest of Baghdad, Aug. 13 2005.
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Women combat us 3
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Women combat us 4
Army First Lt. Alisha Vanghn (L) is greeted by her friend First Lt. Shandale Hall (R) during a welcome home ceremony for 330 soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division on Jan. 7, 2006 at Fort Stewart, Georgia. Hall and Vaughn served together in Iraq, but returned home a month apart.
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Women combat us 5
Two US Army soldiers, Private Miranda Nichols (L), 18, from Georgia, and Private First Class Leysha Williamson (R), 27, from Texas, man a foxhole during a dawn defensive alert south of Baghdad on March 30, 2003.
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Women combat us 6
A US soldier stands amid Shiite Muslim youths during a patrol in September 2003 in Sadr City, home to the largest Shiite community in Baghdad.
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Women combat us 7
US Army chaplain Cpt. Julie Rowan comforts the mother of a woman who died of burn wounds on Sept. 10, 2005, at the combat hospital at Baghram Air Field, Afghanistan.
- [John Moore/Getty Images]
Women combat us 8
A ground crew member sits in the co-pilot's seat of a KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft as she helps conduct a maintenance check during Operation Desert Shield.
- [USAF/Getty Images]
Women combat us 9
A US Military Academy graduate smiles after receiving her diploma during commencement exercises on May 31, 2003, in West Point, New York.
- [Chris Hondros/Getty Images]
Women combat us 10
Female Marine Corps recruit Ginger Callahan, 20, of New York fires on the rifle range at the United States Marine Corps recruit depot on June 21, 2004 in Parris Island, South Carolina.
- [Scott Olson/Getty Images]
Women combat us 11
Former Iraqi War POW Shoshana Johnson (R) listens as the church choir sing a song to honor her at the First United Christian Church on June 6, 2003 in Los Angeles, California. Shoshana, the first black female POW, was captured and shot in the ankles during the US invasion of Iraq on March 23 near Nasiriyah along with six other US Army personnel from the El Paso-based 507th Maintenance Company.
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