Arakan News Agency
Thousands of Rohingyas, starved of hunger, destitution and fear, crossed the border early Monday from Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape food shortages and Buddhist attacks described by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing, witnesses said.
Refugees fought through deep water with their children and told Reuters they had walked through waterways and waterways that rose from monsoon rains.
A stream of refugees seemed to endlessly look at Bangladesh near the village of PalonKali Many of them were wounded, while the displaced carried their elderly relatives on a towel while the women were transporting cooking utensils, rice pans and clothes on their heads.
“We could not leave the house last month because the army was looting people,” said Mohammed Shuaib, 29. They started shooting at the village and so we fled to another … and day by day things began to deteriorate. “We started moving towards Bangladesh and before we left I went back to my village to see my house and the whole village was burning.”
The new refugees have joined some 536,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar since August 25th when coordinated attacks by Rohingya gunmen have provoked a violent backlash from the army. Rohingya people accused the security forces of burning, killing and rape.
Myanmar rejects ethnic cleansing charges and describes militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in Arakan as terrorists who killed civilians and burned villages.
All were unable to reach Bangladesh.
Authorities in Bangladesh said a boat carrying dozens of refugees drowned at dawn several kilometers south of PalonKali , killing at least 12 people and losing 35 others while 21 survived.
Refugees who managed to make the trip said they had been displaced by hunger because markets in the western state of Arakan had been closed and relief aid was restricted. Refugees also spoke of attacks by the army and Buddhists in Arakan.
On Monday, the ICRC opened a field hospital on an area equal to two football fields with 60 beds, three sections, a surgery room, a maternity unit and psychological support.
Officials told Reuters the United States and the European Union were considering sanctions against Myanmar military leaders.
EU foreign ministers will discuss the Myanmar issue on Monday and in the draft joint statement that the bloc “will stop invitations to the chief of staff of the armed forces of Myanmar and other senior military officials.”
