Arakan News Agency
As they desperately try to escape the mayhem, touts prey on their insecurities and force them to fish out much of their savings to provide boats.
Bangladesh border guards have been stopping these Rohingya boats, their officials claiming to have pushed back 86 such boats in recent weeks.
Azza Begum, who lived at Maungdaw’s Poakhali area, crossed the border into Bangladesh on Thursday midnight.
She along with seven others of her family have taken shelter at a relative’s place, in a Rohingya refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf.
“The army and the ethnic Rakhines have vandalised and looted all the houses in our neighbourhood. They burnt my daughter-in-law to death,” said 50-year-old Azza Begum.
She says the army has killed at least five persons in her area. “Everyone in the area has fled fearing for their lives.”
Begum said seven out of her 11-member family, including children, had to walk for six days before entering Bangladesh, “I have no idea where the others (of the family) are.”
The military crackdown, which began after the Oct 9 attack on police, is tantamount to crimes against humanity, according to the UN Human Rights Council.
Rights groups claim that more than 400 Rohingyas have died, but authorities confirmed 86 deaths and said that 69 of them were suspected militants.
Myanmar has also rebuffed claims of rape, arson and killing of civilians by troops.
Bangladesh, which has been providing shelter to over half a million Rohingyas since the 1980s, has now decided not to let anymore of them in.
Amid escalating violence, more than 10,000 Rohingyas have crossed into Bangladesh in recent weeks, UN officials say.
Azza Begum said they paid human traffickers Tk 2,000 for each family member to cross the border.
Shamsuddin, who has also sneaked into Bangladesh, said the smugglers snatched all their valuable possessions, including gold ornaments as they could not pay them.
On Nov 30, three sisters, aged between 15 and 20 years, entered Bangladesh. These Maungdaw residents claimed that troops have looted, set fire to homes and raped 20 to 30 women, including themselves.
“Our parents were locked up in their own home and burnt to death. Nine out of the 13 members of our family have managed to enter Bangladesh. The others are missing,” said the eldest of the three.
Source : bdnews24
