VIOLENCE in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state has driven thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims fleeing toward Bangladesh for safety, along with a smaller exodus of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.
A majority of the country’s estimated one million Rohingya live in the northern part of Rakhine state, where clashes erupted last week.
Human rights groups and advocates for the Rohingya say the army resoeted to burning down villages and shooting civilians. The government blames suspected Rohingya insurgents for the violence, including the arson.
The official death toll in the violence was 96 as of Sunday, and the actual number is likely to be higher in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
An estimated 8,000 to 9,000 Rohingya have entered Bangladesh since the violence broke out last Thursday.
The top United Nations human rights official called on authorities in Myanmar to ensure that the security forces refrain from using disproportionate force against the Rohingya in Rakhine.
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, UN high commissioner for human rights, condemned co-ordinated attacks by insurgents but said the political leadership had a duty to protect all civilians “without discrimination.”
Zeid put the number that has fled to Bangladesh since the attacks at more than 8,700.
“This turn of events is deplorable. It was predicted and could have been prevented,” he said, adding that many are “still waiting to cross the border or hiding in mountainous or forested areas.”
New York-based Human Rights Watch on Tuesday said satellite photos appear to show widespread burning in 10 areas of northern Rakhine. While the causes of the fires could not be determined, it noted it “compared the locations of these fires with witness statements it has collected and media reports, and found a correlation with some reported incidents where residences have allegedly been deliberately burned.”
Denied rights, citizenship
The group urged the government to “grant access to independent monitors to determine the sources of fires and assess allegations of human rights violations.”
Tension has long been high between the Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists, leading to bloody rioting in 2012.
Most of the violence since last week seems to be directed at Rohingya villages, but Rakhine Buddhists, feeling unsafe after the upsurge in fighting, are moving south to the state’s capital, Sittwe, where Buddhists are a majority and have greater security.
The Rohingya have long faced severe discrimination and were the targets of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people — predominantly Rohingya — from their homes to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain.
The government refuses to recognize Rohingya as a legitimate native ethnic minority. Most Rohingya are denied citizenship and its rights. — Agencies
