Myanmar Hindus find refuge in Bangladesh

ROHINGYA BLAME THE ARMY FOR THE VIOLENCE, BUT BUDDHIST AND HINDU GROUPS SAY THEY WERE TERRORISED BY ROHINGYA MILITANTS.

KUTUPALONG: In a small village in Bangladesh, hundreds of Hindu refugees from Myanmar are handed plates heaped with dal and rice, very close to where desperate Muslim Rohingya beg for food and shelter.

The contrast captures the religious and ethnic divides that have only deepened since a convulsion of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state unleashed a staggering refugee crisis.

The vast majority of those fleeing are Rohingya Muslims, with more than 420,000 bolting from a campaign of violence.

A smaller number of Buddhists and Hindus were also caught up in the violence.

While most were displaced within Rakhine, an estimated 500 Hindus fled to Bangladesh, where they initially tried to find space in the overflowing camps dominated by Rohingya.

But communal tensions trailed them there, according to Hindu refugees who have since been given sanctuary by a local Hindu community nearby.

In the small Hindu village in Kutupalong they now call home, the refugees first described attacks on their homes in Rakhine that triggered their escape.

Some said they believed their attackers were from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, the Rohingya militants behind the ambushes on police posts. Since the latest eruption of violence, Rakhine’s ethnic groups have traded accusations over who is to blame for the carnage.