Arakan News Agency
The number of victims of last Friday’s violence in Arakan has risen to 104, mostly from Rohingya, 12 security personnel and a number of civilians, according to a Reuters survey based on official data.
A UN spokesman said the UN had withdrawn its non-essential staff from the region.
“In view of the situation on the ground, the United Nations decided to temporarily relocate its non-essential staff outside Maungdaw,” the organization said, referring to a key town in Arakan state.
In anticipation of further violence, thousands of Rohingyas, mostly women and children, are trying to head towards the Naf River, which separates Myanmar from Bangladesh and the land border. Reuters reporters at the border said one could hear gunfire on Myanmar’s side of the border on Sunday, prompting many Rohingyas into the no-man’s-land area between the two countries.
According to estimates by Rohingya refugees living in makeshift camps on the Bangladeshi side of the border, some 2,000 refugees have been able to cross into Bangladesh since Friday.
The attacks represent a major escalation in a conflict raging in the region since a similar attack in October that prompted the authorities to launch a major military operation plagued by allegations of serious human rights violations.
Although there is no possibility of a detailed assessment of what is happening because of the chaos and lack of access to the sites of events, experts said the scope of the recent attacks was so broad that it looked like a movement or an uprising and not an armed attack.
An army source in Arakan state said the army found it difficult to differentiate between the people. “All the farmers have become fighters. What they are doing is a revolution … they do not care if they die or not. We can not distinguish between insurgents and others. ”
A challenge to Suu Kyi
The handling of some 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist province, is the biggest challenge to Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Western critics accuse Suu Kyi of not protecting the oppressed Muslim minority and defending the brutal attack launched by the army after the October attacks.
Point of explosion
For years, the Rohingya has been subjected to conditions similar to apartheid in Myanmar. They are deprived of nationality and face restrictions on their movements. Many Buddhists in Myanmar regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
The Brussels-based International Crisis Group criticized the government for not acting “quickly or decisively enough” to remedy the failure of government policies that have prompted some Muslims to resort to violence.
Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry said it was concerned that thousands of “unarmed Myanmar residents” planned to cross into the country.
A number of Rohingya men ran into the uninhabited no-man’s land between the two countries after gunshots were heard on Myanmar’s side of the border, while dozens of women sat under plastic sheets to protect them from the sun.
Border guards in Bangladesh said they were providing food and water to the Rohingya but would not let anyone in.
“Save us please … we want to stay here or we will be killed,” said Amir Hussein, 61, amid a group of children crying.
