‘6,700 ROHINGYA DIED IN FIRST MONTH’

It includes at least 730 children under 5, says Doctors Without Borders

YANGON

AT least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of a Myanmar army crackdown on rebels in Rakhine State that began in August, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said yesterday.

The figure is the highest estimated death toll yet of violence that erupted on Aug 25 and triggered a massive refugee crisis, with more than 620,000 Rohingya fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh in three months.

The United Nations and United States have described the military operation as ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority, but have not released specific estimations of a death toll.

“At least 6,700 Rohingya, in the most conservative estimations, are estimated to have been killed, including at least 730 children below the age of 5,” MSF said.

The findings come from six surveys of more than 2,434 households in Rohingya refugee camps and cover a period of one month.

“We met and spoke with survivors of violence in Myanmar, who are now sheltering in overcrowded and unsanitary camps in Bangladesh,” said the group’s medical director, Sidney Wong.

“What we uncovered was staggering, both in terms of the numbers of people who reported a family member died as a result of violence, and the horrific ways in which they said they were killed or severely injured.”

Gunshot wounds were the cause of death in 69 per cent of cases, the survey found.

Another nine per cent were reported burned alive inside houses, while five per cent died from fatal beatings.

For children under 5, nearly 60 per cent died after being shot.

Myanmar’s army has denied any abuses and says only 400 people, including 376 Rohingya “terrorists”, died in the first few weeks of the crackdown.

But MSF said the peak in deaths coincided with the launch of “clearance operations” by the army and local militias in late August, and were evidence “that Rohingya have been targeted”. AFP