Cox's Bazar - Rohingya
refugees in Bangladesh could die due to a lack of food, shelter
and water, given the huge numbers fleeing violence in Myanmar,
an aid agency warned on Sunday, as authorities began moving
people to camps to streamline the distribution of help.
Nearly 410 000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority fled
from Myanmar's western Rakhine state to Bangladesh to escape a
military offensive that the United Nations has branded a
"textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
"Many people are arriving hungry, exhausted and with no food
or water," Mark Pierce, Bangladesh country director for the Save
the Children aid agency said in a statement.
"I'm particularly worried that the demand for food, shelter,
water and basic hygiene support is not being met due to the
sheer number of people in need. If families can't meet their
basic needs, the suffering will get even worse and lives could
be lost."
Bangladesh has for decades faced influxes of Rohingya
fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where the
Rohingya are regarded as illegal migrants.
Bangladesh was already home to 400 000 Rohingya before the
latest crisis erupted on August 25, when Rohingya insurgents
attacked police posts and an army camp in the western state of
Rakhine, killing a dozen people.
Pierce said the humanitarian response needed to be rapidly
scaled up.
"That can only be done if the international community steps
up funding," he said.
Rights monitors and fleeing Rohingya say Myanmar security
forces and Rakhine Buddhist vigilantes responded to the August 25
insurgent attacks with what they say is a campaign of violence
and arson aimed at driving out the Muslim population.
Myanmar rejects that, saying its security forces are
carrying out clearance operations against the insurgents of the
Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which claimed responsibility for
the August attacks and similar, smaller, raids in October.
The Myanmar government has declared the group a terrorist
organisation and accused it of setting the fires and attacking
civilians.
Bangladesh border guards said the flow of refugees leaving
Myanmar had eased off over the past day, apparently because bad
weather had discouraged people from taking to boats to reach
Bangladesh.
Heavy rain has turned roads into mud, with refugees huddling
under shelters of bamboo and plastic sheets beside them.
Bangladeshi authorities said they had started moving an
estimated 100 000 Rohingya living by the roads to camps
designated as aid points.
"We're not allowing any distribution to anyone from the side
of the road," said district government official Kazi Abdur
Rahman. "We want to convince them there's everything in the camp
and nothing here."
A big new camp is planned but it is unclear how long it
would take to build.
"People are living in these muddy, awful conditions. You
have to get them to some sort of space where aid can be
delivered," said Chris Lom of the International Organisation for
Migration.
"Clean water and sanitation can only be delivered in a
structured environment."
There is no sign that violence has stopped in Myanmar, with
smoke, apparently from burning villages, seen as recently as
Friday, meaning more refugees are likely to cross.
Human Rights Watch said satellite imagery showed 62 Rohingya
villages had been torched since the violence erupted.
Myanmar says more than 430 people have been killed, most of
them insurgents, and about 30 000 non-Muslim villagers have been
displaced.
Myanmar government leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi has faced a barrage of criticism from abroad for not
stopping the violence.
The military remains in full control of security policy and
there is little sympathy for the Rohingya in a country where the
end of army rule has unleashed old animosities, and the military
campaign in Rakhine State is widely supported.
Suu Kyi is due to make her first address to the nation on
the crisis on Tuesday.
Her foreign supporters and Western governments that backed
her campaign against military rule, and see her as the best hope
for Myanmar's future, will be hoping to see her make a
commitment to protect the rights of the Muslim minority.
Suu Kyi's supporters at home could be disappointed if she is
perceived to be caving in to foreign pressure and taking the
side of a Muslim minority blamed for initiating the violence.
The United States has called for the protection of civilians
and a deputy assistant secretary of state, Patrick Murphy, is
due in Myanmar this week.
He will travel to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, to
meet government officials and representatives of different
communities, including Rohingya, but he is not seeking to travel
to the conflict zone in northern Rakhine State.
The military has called for unity on the issue.
The political party founded by retired officers and trounced
by Suu Kyi's party in the 2015 election, could be expected to
take heart to see her support eroded by the crisis.