UN official: Thousands of Rohingya are now fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh

Arakan News Agency
The United Nations announced on Friday that thousands of Rohingya Muslims are now on their way to escape from Arakan (Arakan province) in western Myanmar, heading to neighboring Bangladesh.
“We have no presence on the ground in Arakan, but thousands of Rohingya are on their way now to flee the country to Bangladesh,” said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN secretary-general.
The official said in a statement to the headquarters of the Organization in New York that the allegations can not be verified by the authorities in Myanmar, which recently reported that it has stopped its military campaign in Arakan since 5th of September.
“We do not have direct information from Arakan, but as you know, Under Secretary-General (Jeffrey Feltman), during his last visit to the state, last week saw completely burnt villages.”
“Thousands of Rohingya refugees are fleeing, and when they arrive at their destination in Bangladesh, we record their testimony about what happened and what they saw,” he said.
According to the UN official, “the number of people fleeing the Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh, currently at 589 thousand people.”
Farhan Haq referred to the report of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which reported today that some 12,000 children have been forced to flee weekly to Bangladesh since the start of the military operation in Arakan on 25th August.
“The UNICEF report said that the difficult conditions in camps and water-borne diseases threaten more than 320,000 Rohingya children who have fled to southern Bangladesh since late August, including 10,000 who have crossed the border from Myanmar in the past few days.”
Since August 25th, the Myanmar army and Buddhist militias have committed crimes, attacks and brutal massacres against the Muslim minority of Rohingya, killing thousands of them, local activists said.
The government of Myanmar considers Rohingya Muslims “illegal immigrants” from Bangladesh, while the United Nations classifies them as “the most persecuted religious minority in the world.”