Burma military ‘using mines’ to target refugees at the border

THE Burmese military has been accused of using landmines to target ethnic Rohingya refugees fleeing mass killings after two people were injured in blasts near the country’s border with Bangladesh.

The reports came as Bangladesh’s government accused Burmese authorities of slaughtering at least 3,000 people in a campaign of “genocide” against the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority. “The international community is saying it is a genocide. We also say it is a genocide,” said A H Mahmood Ali, the foreign minister of Bangladesh, after meeting with Arab and Western diplomats and UN agencies in Dhaka.

Mr Mahmoud said about 300,000 Rohingya refugees had entered Bangladesh since the Burmese military launched an operation against insurgents in the country’s Rakhine state on August 25. Two diplomats present at the meeting said Mr Ali estimated 3,000 Rohingya had been killed since.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which claimed responsibility for a series of deadly attacks on Burmese border posts last month, called a unilateral ceasefire yesterday.

The group said it would halt “offensive military operations” for one month to allow humanitarian groups access to the region. It urged the Burmese military to do the same. Burma, which has previously labelled ARSA as “terrorists”, appeared to reject the overture.

“We have no policy to negotiate with terrorists,” Zaw Htay, a senior government spokesman, tweeted yesterday.

It came as further evidence emerged that Burma is laying mines on the border. One man lost his foot and another went to hospital in Cox’s Bazar with serious injuries after standing on landmines, Amnesty International said.

Kaiser, a 10-year-old boy at a camp on the banks of the Tombro Khal river, needed stitches in his forehead after being hit by shrapnel when another refugee stepped on a mine. “Luckily I got just a spark from it,” he said. “I didn’t see what happened to the man.”