DHAKA
(Reuters) - Muslim refugees seeking shelter in Bangladesh from “unimaginable
horrors” in Myanmar face enormous hardship and risk a dramatic
deterioration in
circumstances unless aid is stepped up, the head of the U.N. refugee agency
said on Monday.
The warning
came as Myanmar government forces searched for bodies of Hindu villagers who
authorities suspect were killed by Muslim insurgents last month, at the
beginning of a wave of violence that has sent 436,000 Muslim Rohingya fleeing
to neighboring Bangladesh.
The violence
in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State and the refugee exodus is the biggest crisis
the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has faced since it came to
power last year as part of a transition from nearly 50 years of military rule.
It has also
threatened to drive a wedge in the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN), with Muslim-majority Malaysia disavowing a statement on the Myanmar
situation from the bloc’s chairman, the Philippines, as misrepresenting “the
reality”.
U.N. High
Commissioner of Refugees Filippo Grandi told a news conference in Bangladesh
that “solutions to this crisis lie with Myanmar”.
But until
then, the world had to help the “deeply traumatized” refugees facing enormous
hardship, whom he had met on a weekend visit to camps in southeast Bangladesh.
“They had
seen villages burned down, families shot or hacked to death, women and girls
brutalized,” Grandi said.
He called
for aid to be “rapidly stepped up” and thanked Bangladesh for keeping its
border open.
Buddhist-majority
Myanmar regards the Rohingya Muslims as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Fighting between Muslim insurgents and government forces has flared
periodically for decades.
The latest
violence began on Aug. 25 when militants from a little-known group, the Arakan
Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), attacked about 30 police posts and an army
camp.
The United
Nations has described a sweeping military response as ethnic cleansing, with
refugees and rights groups accusing Myanmar forces and Buddhist vigilantes of
violence and arson aimed at driving Rohingya out.
The United
States has said the Myanmar action was disproportionate and has called for an
end to the violence.
People wait
to receive aid in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal
McNaughton
Myanmar
rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing, saying it is fighting terrorists. It
has said more than 400 people have been killed, most of them insurgents.
HINDUS
KILLED
Members of
Myanmar’s small Hindu minority appear to have been caught in the middle.
Some have
fled to Bangladesh, complaining of violence against them by soldiers or
Buddhist vigilantes. Others have complained of being attacked by the insurgents
on suspicion of being government spies.
Myanmar said
on Monday the bodies of 28 Hindus had been found outside a village in the north
of Rakhine State and authorities were looking for more.
The initial
search was mounted after a refugee in Bangladesh contacted a Hindu community
leader in Myanmar to say about 300 ARSA militants had marched about 100 people
out of the village on Aug. 25 and killed them, the government said.
Access to
the area by journalists as well as human rights workers and aid workers is
largely restricted and Reuters could not independently verify the report.
An ARSA
spokesman dismissed the accusation that the group had killed the Hindus, saying
Buddhist nationalists were trying to divide Hindus and Muslims.
“ARSA has
internationally pledged not to target civilians and that remains unchanged, no
matter what,” the spokesman, who is based in a neighboring country and
identified himself only as Abdullah, told Reuters through a messaging service.
In a public
display of discord within ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member, Malaysia
disassociated itself from a statement issued by group chair the Philippines as
it misrepresented the situation and did not identify the Rohingya as one of the
affected communities.
Myanmar
objects to the term Rohingya, saying the Muslims of Rakhine State are not a
distinct ethnic group.
This month,
Malaysia summoned Myanmar’s ambassador to express displeasure over the violence
in Myanmar. It also expressed its grave concern over atrocities.
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