COX’S
BAZAR, Bangladesh/YANGON (Reuters) - About 1,000 Rohingya Muslims
fleeing escalating violence in Myanmar had been halted at the border
with Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security officials said on Saturday, as
fresh fighting erupted in Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine state.
The
death toll from attacks staged by Rohingya insurgents on Friday has
climbed to 89, including 77 insurgents and 12 members of the security
forces, Myanmar’s army said.
The attacks marked a
dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since a similar
offensive last October that prompted a big military sweep beset by
allegations of serious human rights abuses.
At least one fresh attack had taken place on Saturday, according to a Myanmar security source.
National
leader Aung San Suu Kyi condemned Friday’s early morning raids - in
which Rohingya insurgents wielding guns, sticks and home-made bombs
assaulted 30 police stations and an army base - while the government
evacuated staff and villagers to safety.
The
treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as
the biggest challenge for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s 16-month old
administration.
Suu Kyi has been accused of not
speaking out for the persecuted minority and of defending the army’s
brutal counter-offensive after the October attacks.
In
a sign that both sides were bracing for more violence, about 1,000
Rohingya arrived at the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and
got stranded there, a Bangladeshi border guard and Mohammad Ali Hossain,
deputy commissioner of Cox’s Bazar district near the Myanmar border,
told Reuters.
“Many Rohingya people are trying
to enter the country, but we have a zero tolerance policy - no one will
be allowed,” said Hossain.
Bangladeshi officials
regularly advocate a hardline approach to refugees in official
interviews, but typically end up letting the refugees through. There are
hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and 87,000
have arrived since October.
BEGGING FOR RESTRAINT
The
Myanmar army operation last year was heavily criticised internationally
amid reports of civilian killings, rape and arson, sparking allegations
by the United Nations of crimes against humanity. Suu Kyi is blocking
U.N.-mandated probe into the allegations.
Observers
worry that the latest attacks will spark an even more aggressive army
response and trigger communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhist
ethnic Rakhines.
“25 Aug attack in N Rakine
utmost concern! Violence must stop in Rakhine. Heartfelt sorrow 4
deaths. Beg all sides 2 take restraint! Everyone!” said Yanghee Lee, the
U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar on Twitter.
In a statement late on Friday, Suu Kyi “strongly condemned” “brutal attacks by terrorists on security forces in Rakhine State.”
“I
would like to commend the members of the police and security forces who
have acted with great courage in the face of many challenges,” she
added.
The government said it had evacuated
officials, teachers and hundreds of non-Rohingya villagers to army bases
and main police stations.
“Some will be
evacuated by helicopters and some will be taken out by the security
forces,” a military source based in Rakhine told Reuters.
Military
sources and residents told Reuters the fiercest fighting took place
only a few kilometres east and south of the centre of the major town of
Maungdaw in the hamlets of Myo Thu Gyi and Nyaung Chaung.
A
resident in Maungdaw contacted by Reuters by telephone said he heard
what sounded like shelling in the direction of the Myo Thu Gyi.
“A
lot of police and army vehicles went to the area as the fighting
erupted between the security forces and Muslim groups,” said the source.
PEOPLE DON'T GO OUT
The
Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) which instigated the October
attacks claimed responsibility for the offensive, presenting it as a
defence against the Myanmar army.
Myanmar
declared ARSA, previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, a terrorist
organisation in the wake of the attacks. President Htin Kyaw’s office
and Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing also “discussed the issues of
applying more security forces and using helicopters”, the government
said.
Kori
Mullah, a Rohingya resident from Maungdaw, said his family did not dare
to go out of the house and the town was tense and quiet.
"The roads are empty. Schools, shops and markets are all closed down. People don't go out," he said.
Rakhine
Buddhist villagers from Taman Thar village, some 50 km (30 miles) north
of Maungdaw, said they spent Friday night at a monastery with 500
non-Muslim residents of the area.
"The military
patrol arrived near our village, so there were no clashes at night,"
Maung Thein Hla, one of the fleeing residents, told Reuters by
telephone.
"We felt better about our security because the army was near us."
Additional
reporting by Wa Lone in YANGON and Krishna N. Das in NEW DELHI; Writing
by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Lincoln Feast
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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