Rohingya flee renewed Myanmar violence
COX’S BAZAR: More than 18 000 Rohingya Muslims, many sick and some with bullet wounds, have fled the worst violence to grip northwest Myanmar in five years, while thousands more are stuck at the Bangladesh border or scrambling to reach it.
Last Friday’s series of co-ordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security forces in the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine state and ensuing clashes triggered the Rohingya exodus, while the government evacuated thousands of Rakhine Buddhists.
Since the attacks, about 18 445 Rohingya – mostly women and children – have registered in Bangladesh, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said yesterday.
“They are in a very, very desperate condition,” said Sanjukta Sahany, who runs the IOM office in the southern town of Cox’s Bazar near the border.
“The biggest needs are food, health services and shelter.”
Sahany said many crossed “with bullet injuries and burn injuries”, and that aid workers reported some refugees “gave a blank look” when questioned.
“People are traumatised, which is quite visible.”
The UN, while condemning the militant attacks, has pressured Myanmar to protect civilian lives without discrimination and appealed to Bangladesh to admit those fleeing the military counter-offensive.
At least 109 people have been killed in the clashes with insurgents, Myanmar says, most of them militants but also members of the security forces and civilians.
The treatment of about 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar is the biggest challenge facing national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused by Western critics of not speaking out for a minority that has long complained of persecution.
The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries.
The violence marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when a similar, but much smaller, series of Rohingya attacks on security posts prompted a fierce military response, in which the UN has said security forces probably committed crimes against humanity.
“The situation is terrifying, houses are burning, all the people ran away from their homes, parents and children were divided, some were lost, some are dead,” said Abdullah, 25, a Rohingya from the region of Buthidaung, struggling to hold back tears.
Abdullah said four of the six hamlets in his village of Mee Chaung Zay had been burned down by security forces, prompting all its residents to flee towards Bangladesh.
He was among the thousands of frightened people who left their village to gather at the foot of the Mayu mountain range.
Together with his wife and 5-yearold daughter, Abdullah brought sticky rice and fetched plastic sheets and empty water bottles, preparing to trek in monsoon rain for days on a 20km route through the mountains to the border.
“I am waiting for all of my relatives to leave together with my family as soon as possible,” he said.