Thousands of new Rohingya refugees flee violence, hunger in Myanmar to Bangladesh
Hungry, destitute and scared,
thousands of new Rohingya refugees crossed the border into Bangladesh from
Myanmar early on Monday, Reuters witnesses said, fleeing attacks by Buddhist
mobs and hunger that the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing.
Wading through waste-deep water
with children strapped to their sides, the Rohingya told Reuters how they had
walked through bushes and forded monsoon-swollen streams for days from
Myanmar’s Buthidaung region before reaching the border.
g”We couldn’t step out of the
house for the last month because the military were looting people. They started
firing on the village. So we escaped into another village,” said Mohammad
Shoaib, 29.
He wore a yellow vest and was
balancing his jute bags, carrying some food and aluminium pots, on a bamboo
pole. “Day by day things kept getting worse, so we started moving towards
Bangladesh. Before we left, I went back near my village to see my house, and
the entire village was burnt down,” Shoaib said.
They walked to join some 536,000
Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar since Aug. 25, when coordinated Rohingya
insurgent attacks sparked a ferocious military response, with the fleeing
people accusing security forces of arson, killings and rape.
Myanmar rejects accusations of
ethnic cleansing and has labelled the militants from the Arakan Rohingya
Salvation Army who launched the initial attacks as terrorists who have killed
civilians and burnt villages.
FOOD, AID RESTRICTED
The refugees who arrived in
Bangladesh on Monday said they were driven out by hunger because food markets
in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state have been shut down and aid deliveries
restricted. They also reported attacks by the military and Rakhine Buddhist
mobs.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya
had already been in Bangladesh after fleeing previous spasms of violence in
Myanmar, where they have long been denied citizenship and faced restrictions on
their movements and access to basic services.
Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi,
has pledged accountability for human rights abuses and says the country will
accept back refugees who can prove they were residents of Myanmar.
The United States and the
European Union have been considering targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s
military leaders, diplomats and officials have told Reuters, although they are
wary of action that could destabilize the country’s transition to democracy.
EU foreign ministers will discuss
Myanmar on Monday, and their draft joint statement said the bloc “will suspend
invitations to the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar/Burma armed forces and
other senior military officers”.
The powerful army chief, Min Aung
Hlaing, told the United States ambassador in Myanmar last week that the exodus
of Rohingya, who he said were non-native “Bengalis”, was exaggerated.
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