UN: Myanmar Pursuing Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing
Local Editor
Myanmar is engaged in "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya Muslims, a UN official said, as reports emerged Friday of troops shooting at villagers as they tried to flee.
Thousands of desperate people have pushed over the border into Bangladesh in the last few days, bringing with them horrifying stories of gang rape, torture and the systematic killing of their ethnic group.
John McKissick, head of the United Nations refugee agency in the Bangladeshi border town of Cox's Bazar, said troops in Myanmar were "killing men, shooting them, slaughtering children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing these people to cross the river" into Bangladesh.
The UN said up to 30,000 Rohingya, a stateless ethnic group, have abandoned their homes in Myanmar, desperate to escape the soldiers that have poured into the strip of land where they live near the Bangladesh border.
Dhaka noted that thousands are massed on the border, but refused urgent international appeals to let them in, instead calling on Myanmar to do more to stop people fleeing.
"It's very difficult for the Bangladeshi government to say the border is open because this would further encourage the government of Myanmar to continue the atrocities and push them out until they have achieved their ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar," McKissick said.
Vivian Tan, a press officer for the UN agency, said McKissick was "recounting what different sources, including new arrivals, have told him about the conditions they fled" and added the reports were "very worrying".
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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