Dhaka/Yangon - The United Nations
appealed on Thursday for massive help for nearly 400 000 Muslims
from Myanmar who have fled to Bangladesh, with concern growing
that the number could keep rising, unless Myanmar ends what
critics denounce as "ethnic cleansing".
The Rohingya are fleeing from a Myanmar military offensive
in the western state of Rakhine that was triggered by a series
of guerrilla attacks on August 25 on security posts and an army
camp in which about a dozen people were killed.
The United Nations has called for a massive intensification
of relief operations to help the refugees, and a much bigger
response from the international community.
"We urge the international community to step up humanitarian
support and come up with help," Mohammed Abdiker, director of
operations and emergencies for the International Organisation
for Migration, told a news conference in the Bangladeshi
capital. The need was "massive", he added.
The violence in Rakhine and the exodus of refugees is the
most pressing problem Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has
faced since becoming national leader last year.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the U.N.
Security Council on Wednesday urged Myanmar to end the violence,
which he said was best described as ethnic cleansing.
The government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects such
accusations, saying it is targeting "terrorists".
Numerous Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine have been
torched but authorities have denied that security forces or
Buddhist civilians set the fires. They blame the insurgents, and
say 30,000 non-Muslim villagers were also displaced.
Smoke was rising from at least five places on the Myanmar
side of the border on Thursday, a Reuters reporter in Bangladesh
said. It was not clear what was burning or who set the fires.
"Ethnic cleansing" is not recognised as an independent crime
under international law, the U.N. Office on Genocide Prevention
says, but it has been used in U.N. resolutions and acknowledged
in judgments and indictments of the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
A U.N. panel of experts defined it as "rendering an area
ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove
persons of given groups".
The crisis has raised questions about Suu Kyi's commitment
to human rights, and could strain relations with Western backers
supporting her leadership of Myanmar's transition from decades
of strict military rule and economic isolation.
Critics have called for her to be stripped of her Nobel
prize for failing to do more to halt the strife, though national
security remains firmly in the hands of the military.
Suu Kyi is due to address the nation on Tuesday.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday
he had spoken with Suu Kyi and that she said she was working to
get aid to areas affected by violence.
Suu Kyi "agreed with the need for immediate and improved
access of humanitarian assistance to the region, particularly by
the International Red Cross, and she conveyed that she is
working toward that end", McConnell said on the Senate floor.
'INTERNAL AFFAIR'
China, which competes with the United States for influence
in Myanmar, endorses the offensive against the insurgents and
deemed it an "internal affair", Myanmar state media said.
"The counterattacks of Myanmar security forces against
extremist terrorists and the government’s undertakings to
provide assistance to the people are strongly welcomed," the
Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted China's ambassador,
Hong Liang, as telling government officials.
But at the United Nations in New York, China set a different
tone, joining a Security Council expression of concern about
reports of violence and urging steps to end it.
The Security Council met on Wednesday to discuss the crisis
and later "expressed concern about reports of excessive violence
... and called for immediate steps to end the violence in
Rakhine, de-escalate the situation, re-establish law and order,
ensure the protection of civilians ... and resolve the refugee
problem".
This week, the Trump administration called for protection of
civilians.
Bangladesh says the refugees will have to go home and has
called for safe zones in Myanmar. Myanmar says safe zones are
unacceptable.
The IOM's Abdiker declined to say how many refugees he
thought might end up in Bangladesh.
"The number may rise to 600,000, 700,000, even one million
if the situation in Myanmar does not improve," he said.
The most important thing was that the refugees be able to go
home safely, said George William Okoth-Obbo, assistant high
commissioner for operations at the U.N. refugee agency.
"The international community has to support to ensure their
return ... peacefully and with safety," he told the news
conference.
On Wednesday, the Myanmar government said 45 places had been
burned. It did not provide details, but a spokesman said out of
471 villages in the north of Rakhine, 176 had been deserted and
at least some people had left 34 more.
The spokesman, Zaw Htay, said the people going to Bangladesh
were either linked to the insurgents, or women and children
fleeing conflict.
Government figures show 432 people have been killed, most of
them insurgents, since Aug. 25.
There are also fears of a humanitarian crisis on the Myanmar
side of the border. The government has accused some aid groups
of helping the insurgents and has restricted access.