Myanmar villagers surge across border

Under fire, Rohingya cross into Bangladesh

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — About 1,000 ethnic Rohingya villagers from Myanmar forced their way Monday into Bangladesh after coming under fire from Myanmar soldiers, in fallout from violence unleashed last week when Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state.

The Muslim villagers, who were seeking refuge from the ongoing violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, had been in a border no man’s land for two days. Bangladeshi border guards, who had provided them with food and water, on Monday sought to push them back to their own country.

A Bangladeshi local government representative, Jahangir Aziz, said that when Myanmar troops fired their guns, the crowd ran back and broke through a Bangladesh barricade and cordon of 300-400 guards.

Rohingya leaders and intelligence officials said 8,000-9,000 Rohingya have entered Bangladesh since the violence broke out last Thursday when Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar police posts.

Human rights groups and advocates for the Rohingya say the army retaliated by burning down villages and shooting civilians, forcing thousands to flee. The official death toll as of Sunday was 96 — most described by the government as “terrorists” — though the actual figure is likely to be higher.

Both the government, in official statements, and its critics, in posts on social media, said there was widespread burning of buildings and even whole neighborhoods in Maungdaw township in northern Rakhine on Sunday.

A group of journalists who tried to drive to Maungdaw on Monday were turned back by police and soldiers, who said they were not authorized to let them through.

However, they did encounter Buddhist residents of the Maungdaw area who were driving the other direction to flee the chaos.

“I thought I was going to die.” said Hla Nu Sein. “I couldn’t run fast as my knee is not good. There are some elders still left in the village.”

She said her home had been burned down twice in the last few years of escalating violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya, whom the Buddhists regard as having immigrated illegally from Bangladesh, though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.

The fleeing Buddhist families were driving toward Buthidaung, where monasteries on Monday were taking in the displaced, giving them a temporary home.