Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh risk sickness for safety

Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh from fighting in Myanmar face the growing danger of sickness after getting stuck at the border. Bangladesh authorities continue to attempt to send them home despite a UN appeal that they be allowed to stay.

A series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces on Friday, in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine State, has triggered a crackdown by Myanmar forces that has sent a stream of Rohingya villagers fleeing to Bangladesh.

"I saw with my own eyes entire Rohingya villages burnt to the ground," an international aid worker told TRT World who was based in Rakhine state before aid workers were evacuated. His identity was not disclosed for safety reasons.

"I would say, it is a disproportionate response against Muslims, in terms of what is happening with the military [...] there is no reason ever to burn civilian villages to the ground."

The aid worker suggested it seemed like "a systematic way to increase the suffering of the people, to make it untenable for them to live there."

TRT World's interview with an international aid worker who witnessed the violence in Rakhine state.

At least 109 people have been killed in the clashes in Myanmar, most of them militants but including members of the security forces and civilians.

Many of those seeking refuge in Bangladesh are sick and at least six have died after crossing in, an aid worker said. Fear of being caught and sent back meant some refused to seek help, the worker, with an international agency in Bangladesh who declined to be identified or have his agency identified, explained.

"What we're seeing is that many Rohingya people are sick," said the worker.

"This is because they got stuck in the border before they could enter. It's mostly women and children."

"We're making all out efforts but a rapid response is needed," the aid worker said. 

TRT World spoke to Silma Suba in Dhaka and Alex Bookbinder in Yangon about the Bangladesh government's response and insurgent group in Rakhine state.

Bangladesh blocks Rohingyas

Bangladesh's border guards are trying to block the Rohingya from crossing in, and aim to round up and send back those who do.

Bangladesh is already hosting more than 400,000 Rohingya.

More than 8,700 have registered in Bangladesh since Friday, the UN said.

The country has said it will not accept any more Rohingya despite an appeal by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for Dhaka to allow Rohingya to seek safety.

New arrivals

Hundreds of new arrivals milled around the entrance of the Kutapalong makeshift camp, the biggest unofficial refugee camp on the Bangladesh side of the border. Village elders said many of the Muslim hamlets near the border were empty, and said troops and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists had set fire to homes.

Around another 4,000 people were stranded in the no-man's-land between the two countries near Taung Bro village, where temporary shelters stretched for several hundred metres on a narrow strip between the Naf river and Myanmar's border fence.

Reuters reporters saw women, some carrying children and the sick, fording the river, which at that location is less than 10 metres wide. Bangladeshi border guards permitted about half a dozen people at a time to cross to access a pile of donated medicines.

"We came here out of fear for our lives, but we can't cross. So we don't know what to do," said Aung Myaing, from Taung Bro Let Way village, standing knee-deep in the river.

When asked about insurgents he said: "We didn't see them, we have no relation to them. But Myanmar doesn't distinguish between the terrorists and civilians. They are hunting all the Rohingya."

Border guard officials said they had sent back about 550 Rohingya since Monday, via the Naf river that separates the two countries.

Communal violence

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries. 

They are marginalised and their communities occasionally subjected to violence.

A Rohingya militant group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which Myanmar has declared a terrorist organisation, claimed responsibility for the Friday attacks. 

It was also behind a similar though smaller series of attacks in October, which also triggered a tough Myanmar army response.

Aung San Suu Kyi's "authoritarian streak"

The treatment of about 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar has become the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused by Western critics of not speaking out on behalf of the long-persecuted minority.

Former aides, such as medical doctor, novelist and recipient of international human rights awards Ma Thida, have few kind words for the former mentor. Ma Thida once called Suu Kyi “my sister who always remained in my heart.”

The criticism by Ma Thida and other formerly ardent supporters is manifold: they accuse Suu Kyi of ignoring state violence against ethnic minorities and Muslims, continuing to jail journalists and activists, cowing to Myanmar’s still-powerful generals, and failing to nurture democratic leaders who could step in when she, now 72, exits the scene. 

Some conclude that Suu Kyi, who espoused democracy with such passion, always possessed an authoritarian streak which only emerged once she gained power.

Torching Myanmar

Myanmar said late on Monday that a total of 45 insurgent bombs went off on Sunday and Monday.

It also blamed the insurgents for torching seven villages, one outpost, and two parts of Maungdaw town.

Attackers ambushed security forces with small arms and machetes on Monday, and one policeman and one civilian were wounded, the government said in a statement.

Satellite imagery analysed by New York-based Human Rights Watch showed widespread burnings in at least 10 areas in northern Rakhine since the August 25 militant raids, the group said in a statement.