Rohingya rebels declare truce in bid to aid victims

Myanmar Muslims flee to Bangladesh, face hunger, illness.

COX’ S BAZAR, BANGLADESH— Rohingya insurgents, whose attack on Myanmar security forces last month triggered savage military reprisals, declared a monthlong truce Sunday as refugees continued to flood across the border into Bangladesh only to face scant basic resources, hunger and illness.

The Muslim insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army issued the truce statement on the group’s Twitter account and urged Myanmar’s government to reciprocate in order to assist all victims regardless of their background.

The government did not comment immediately.

The rebels, who say they’re fighting to protect their minority members against government-sponsored persecution, launched their first known attacks last October and again Aug. 25. According to Rohingya refugees, the military responded with indiscriminate killings, burning entire villages and forcing tens of thousands to flee. The government said most of the 400 dead were “terrorists.”

The U.N. said Saturday that an estimated 290,000 Rohingya Muslims had arrived in the border district of Cox’s Bazar in just the last two weeks, joining at least 100,000 who were already there after fleeing earlier riots or persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. The number was expected to swell further, with thousands crossing the border each day.

Fights were erupting over food and water. Women and children were tapping on car windows or tugging at the clothes of passing reporters while rubbing their bellies and begging for food. Health experts warned of the potential for outbreaks of disease.

“More and more people are coming,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Vivian Tan. With camps already “more than full,” the new arrivals were setting up spontaneous settlements along roadsides or on any available patches of land.

Within the camps “we are trying our best, but it is very difficult because every day we are seeing new arrivals” with nowhere to go, Tan said.

Many of the newly arrived were initially stunned and traumatized after fleeing the violence. They are now growing desperate in searching for food distribution points that appeared only in recent days, passing out packets of biscuits and 55-pound bags of rice.

One aid worker who asked not to be identified said “stocks are running out” because the refugees’ needs are far greater than anticipated.

“It is impossible to keep up,” she said.

At one food distribution point, women were volunteering to help keep order by tapping people with bamboo sticks to gently urge them back in line. Weary women carried infants in their arms while clutching other children to their sides, afraid they might be separated in the crowds.

One 40-year-old man, faint with hunger, collapsed while waiting and could not stand again on his own when others tried to help him up. They drizzled water between his lips in an attempt to revive him, to no avail.

At one camp, a mobile clinic set up Saturday had already seen 600 patients by the afternoon.

BERNAT ARMANQUE / ASSOCIATED PRESS Abdul Karim, a Rohingya man, lies on the floor Sunday at Sadar Hospital in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Karim suffered severe gunshot wounds to his left foot and chest when Myanmar soldiers attacked his village. Nearly 300,000 Rohingya Muslims have arrived...