Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
More fearful Rohingya run for Bangladesh
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — Thousands more Rohingya Muslims are fleeing large-scale violence and persecution in Burma and crossing into Bangladesh, where more than a half-million others are already living in squalid and overcrowded camps, according to witnesses and a drone video shot by the U.N. refugee agency.
The video shot Monday shows thousands of Rohingya Muslims trudging along a narrow strip of land alongside what appears to a rain-swollen creek in the Palong Khali area in southern Bangladesh. The line of refugees stretches for a few miles.
Witnesses said a new wave of refugees started crossing the border over the weekend. An Associated Press photographer saw thousands of newcomers near one border crossing Tuesday. Several said they were stopped by Bangladeshi border guards and spent the night in muddy rice fields.
In Geneva on Tuesday, refugee agency spokesman Andrej Mahecic said an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Rohingya had fled since Sunday night — raising the overall total to 582,000 refugees who have left Burma since Aug. 25.
He said the latest influx went through the Anjuman Para border crossing point, and many of the new refugees explained that they had fled when their villages were set on fire. Anjuman Para is in the Palong Khali area where the drone video was shot.
“As of this morning, they are still squatting in the paddy fields of Anjuman Para village in Bangladesh,” Mahecic said at a news briefing. “They are waiting for permission to move away from the border, where the sound of gunfire continues to be heard every night from the Myanmar side.”
Burma is often called Myanmar, a name that military authorities adopted in 1989. Some nations, such as the U.S. and Britain, have refused to adopt the name change.
The violence in Buddhist-majority Burma’s Rakhine state broke out after a Rohingya insurgent group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked at least 30 security outposts on Aug. 25 and the military responded with brutal attacks against the Rohingya Muslim population.
The exodus of the Rohingya has continued, with a few small breaks, over the past eight weeks.
In a new report released today, Amnesty International said Burmese security forces have killed hundreds of men, women and children as part of a systematic campaign to expel the Rohingya. The group also called for an arms embargo on the country and criminal prosecution of the perpetrators.
The new arrivals in Bangladesh described scenes of violence with army troops and Buddhist mobs attacking Rohingya homes. The U.N. has described the violence as “textbook ethnic cleansing.”
Several refugees said Bangladesh border guards were not letting them move toward the refugee camps and that they were forced to spend the night in the open in pelting rain, terrified and starving.
In Washington, D.C., a bipartisan group of nine U.S. senators wrote to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday commending her for opening her nation’s borders to Rohingya but also urging her to accelerate the approvals for aid groups to do humanitarian work and increase cooperation with the refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration.
“This will ensure proper coordination of assistance, including building of appropriate shelters, and adequate provision of food and medical care, as well as psychosocial support to address widespread trauma among the population,” said the signatories, led by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo.
“As of this morning, they are still squatting in the paddy fields of Anjuman Para village in Bangladesh. They are waiting for permission to move away from the border, where the sound of gunfire continues to be heard every night from the Myanmar side.” — Andrej Mahecic, U.N. refugee agency spokesman
Information for this article was contributed by Julhas Alam, Muneeza Naqvi, Esther Htusan, Jamey Keaten and Matthew Pennington of The Associated Press.