UN: 164,000 Refugees Enter Bangladesh from Myanmar

Local Editor

The United Nations said Thursday that some 164,000 mostly Rohingya refugees had now crossed into Bangladesh in the last fortnight to escape fighting between militants and Myanmar's military.

The latest figures means more than a quarter of a million Rohingya Muslims had fled Myanmar since fighting first broke out last October, plunging neighboring Bangladesh into the middle of a major humanitarian catastrophe.

The most recent exodus was sparked by a military crackdown following a series of deadly raids by Rohingya militants on Aug. 25.

A further 87,000 refugees had already fled to Bangladesh between October and Aug.25.

Myanmar's more than one million Rohingya are denied citizenship and face severe restrictions in the majority Buddhist country, which has come under increased criticism over its apartheid-like treatment of the Muslim minority.

Despite many living there for generations, they are viewed in Myanmar as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Yet Bangladesh, which by last October already hosted some 400,000 Rohingya who had fled previous episodes of violence, also does not view them as its citizens making them the largest stateless community in the world.

The fighting is the fiercest Myanmar's western Rakhine state had witnessed in years.

The region, Myanmar's poorest state, has been a crucible of communal tensions between Buddhists and Muslims for years.

Myanmar said some 27,000 mainly ethnic Buddhist Rakhine have also fled in the opposite direction since Aug. 25, accusing Rohingya militants of targeting their communities.

Earlier this year United Nations investigators said the Myanmar military's response to the ambushes had unleashed "devastating cruelty" on the Rohingya people, which may amount to ethnic cleansing.

Those flocking into Bangladesh have brought with them harrowing testimony of murder, abuse and widespread arson at the hands of Myanmar's army.

Myanmar's government, led by Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, had rejected allegations of atrocities, accusing the international media, NGOs and the UN of fabrications.

Wednesday Suu Kyi said global sympathy for the Rohingyas was being generated by a "huge iceberg of misinformation."

Myanmar's army has previously said it had killed around 430 Rohingyas.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team