EU ditches Burma sanctions despite atrocity Burma's Rohingya Muslims are referred to as "Bengals" by many officials and ordinary Burmese and are regarded as a stateless colonial leftover despite the community's generations-long history in the country. The Burmese government has refused to discuss the BBC allegations, nor a report documenting Muslim mass graves and dozens of destroyed town from Human Rights Watch (HRW) that was also published on Monday. In the deadliest incident, according to the rights watchdog, up to 70 Muslims, including 28 children, were reportedly killed in a village after police and soldiers disarmed them and failed to protect them from a mob. Ye Htut, a presidential spokesman, accused HRW of timing its report to coincide with the EU sanctions decision. "The government will not pay attention to such a one-sided report," he said. "The Burmese government engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya that continues today through the denial of aid and restrictions on movement," said Phil Robertson, HRW deputy Asia director. Burma will publish its own official inquiry into the outbreak of attacks, which HRW said stretched across hundreds of townships, on Tuesday. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said Burma had made sufficient political progress to warrant dropping sanctions but added the regime must make further progress. The work of the EU in Burma is not remotely finished. It is important to continue working on improving human rights, on improving the humanitarian situation, in helping the Burmese to address issues of ethnic violence, particularly attacks on Muslim communities," he said. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader, has refused to condemn the sectarian violence, although her party has called for an end to official discrimination against minority Muslims. Separately Thein Sein, the Burmese president who launched the recent wave of reform by releasing Miss Suu Kyi from house arrest, has been granted the "In pursuit of peace" award by the leading foreign affairs think tank, the International Crisis Group.