COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AP) - Bangladeshi authorities are trying to restrict the movement of Muslim Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar into crowded border camps and have started immunizing tens of thousands of children against diseases.

Bangladesh has been overwhelmed with more than 400,000 Rohingya who fled their homes in the last three weeks amid a crisis the U.N. describes as ethnic cleansing. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, wo has lambasted Myanmar for "atrocities," left Dhaka to address the annual U.N. gathering in New York.

Abdus Salam, a doctor in a state-run hospital in Cox's Bazar district, says that some 150,000 children will be immunized over seven days for measles, rubella and polio. U.N. says there are some 240,000 children in dire conditions.

Police meanwhile are checking that the refugees don't spread out to nearby towns.

Rohingya Muslim children, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, swing on a tree with clothes handed out to them near Mushani refugee camp, in Bangladesh, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017. The U.N. has described the violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar as ethnic cleansing, a term that describes an organized effort to rid an area of an ethnic group by displacement, deportation or killing. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

A Rohingya Muslim woman, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, serves dinner to her son inside their temporary shelter at Taiy Khali refugee camp, in Bangladesh, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017. United Nations agencies say an estimated 409,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when deadly attacks by a Rohingya insurgent group on police posts prompted Myanmar's military to launch "clearance operations" in Rakhine state. Those fleeing have described indiscriminate attacks by security forces and Buddhist mobs. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Rohingya Muslim women, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, talk as they sit inside their temporary shelter at Taiy Khali refugee camp, in Bangladesh, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017. The U.N. has described the violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar as ethnic cleansing, a term that describes an organized effort to rid an area of an ethnic group by displacement, deportation or killing. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

A Rohingya Muslim boy Shahidul Alam, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh with his family, pauses for a photograph as he walks back after collecting water from a handpump near Mushani refugee camp, Bangladesh, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017. The U.N. has described the violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar as ethnic cleansing, a term that describes an organized effort to rid an area of an ethnic group by displacement, deportation or killing. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

A Rohingya Muslim woman Mustafa Khatoon is given water by a passerby as her daughter Hazra Begum waits for help to take her to a doctor near Mushani refugee camp, Bangladesh, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017. The U.N. has described the violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar as ethnic cleansing, a term that describes an organized effort to rid an area of an ethnic group by displacement, deportation or killing. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin) </s> Around 27,400 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar during the past week and a further 20,000 are marooned in no man’s land between the two countries, three U.N. sources said on Thursday.

Bangladeshi border guards on Thursday recovered the bodies of 20 Rohingya women and children whose boat capsized as they fled Myanmar.

 

 Around 18,500 Rohingya Muslims, many sick and some with bullet wounds, have managed to slip into Bangladesh since Friday, according to the International Organization for Migration.

They fled after a series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security forces in the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine state led to a military crackdown.

Myanmar has evacuated thousands of Rakhine Buddhists from the area, where clashes have so far killed at least 117 people, most of them Rohingya insurgents but also security officials, according to the Myanmar government.

The treatment of about 1.1 million Rohingya in Buddhist-majority Myanmar is the biggest challenge facing national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused by Western critics of not speaking out for a minority that has long complained of persecution.

On Thursday, the bodies of 11 Rohingya children and nine women washed up on the Bangladesh side of the Naf River that separates the two countries as their boat overturned, said Ariful Islam, a commander with Bangladesh’s border guards.

 

 The bodies of two Rohingya women and two children were recovered on Wednesday after their boat was fired on by Myanmar’s Border Guard Police, Islam said.

In the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar, makeshift camps for the displaced set up since similar violence last October were being expanded to accommodate thousands arriving in the past week.

One of those arrivals, Mohammed Rashid, 45, wore a surgical dressing under his eye, which he said was the result of bullet splinters hitting him after the Myanmar army opened fire on a group of Rohingya.

He said about 100 people made their way to the border together, and that he saw explosions and people dying.

“We hid in the forest for two days and then we were stopped at the border, but we got through. We heard that the houses in our village have burned down,” Rashid told Reuters at the camp.

The recent violence marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when a similar but much smaller series of Rohingya attacks on security posts prompted a brutal military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries.

Bangladesh on Wednesday pushed back 366 Rohingya trying to enter the country mainly by small wooden boats, though thousands of others have set up temporary camps along the porous land border between the countries, borders guards said. </s> COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh >> Bangladeshi authorities summoned Myanmar’s envoy to protest what they said were violations of their airspace as the number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in western Myanmar in the past three weeks reached more than 400,000.

Myanmar’s presidential spokesman on Saturday said there’s no evidence of any trespassing and that Dhaka should have reached out to discuss its concerns instead of issuing public statements.

The Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday that Myanmar drones and helicopters flew into Bangladeshi airspace on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. It said a protest note was handed to Myanmar’s envoy Friday evening. Bangladesh warned that the “provocative acts” could lead to consequences.

In Yangon, presidential spokesman Zaw Htay said that while Myanmar’s military denied crossing into Bangladesh’s airspace, the matter was being investigated. “We don’t know exactly if they released that statement for political reasons,” he said of Bangladesh’s protest.

He added that Myanmar was “transporting rations for displaced people for emergency assistance” to areas close to the border and that Bangladesh “needs to understand that as well.”

United Nations agencies say an estimated 409,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when deadly attacks by a Rohingya insurgent group on police posts prompted Myanmar’s military to launch “clearance operations” in Rakhine state. Those fleeing have described indiscriminate attacks by security forces and Buddhist mobs.

The Myanmar government says hundreds have died, mostly Rohingya “terrorists,” and that 176 out of 471 Rohingya villages have been abandoned. Myanmar has insisted that Rohingya insurgents and fleeing villagers themselves are destroying their villages. It has offered no proof to back these charges.

The U.N. has described the violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar as ethnic cleansing — a term that describes an organized effort to rid an area of an ethnic group by displacement, deportation or killing.

Ethnic Rohingya have faced persecution and discrimination in majority-Buddhist Myanmar for decades and are denied citizenship, even though many families have lived there for generations. The government says there is no such ethnicity as Rohingya and say they are Bengalis who illegally migrated to Myanmar from Bangladesh.

Rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights watch have said that they have evidence that Myanmar troops were systematically targeting and setting Rohingya villages on fire over the last three weeks.

U.N. agencies fear continued violence in Myanmar may eventually drive up to 1 million Rohingya into Bangladesh.

As hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh, relief camps are overflowing and food, medicine and drinking water have been in short supply.

Mohammed Shahriar Alam, Bangladesh’s junior foreign minister, said Saturday that India, Turkey, Morocco, Indonesia, Iran and Malaysia have already sent relief and the goods are waiting in an airport in nearby Chittagong. He said more aid was also expected to come via ships soon.

“The United Nations and many other private organizations are working there to support hundreds of thousands who are in dire need of assistance,” said Khaled Mahmud, a top official in Cox’s Bazar. He acknowledged that aid distribution remained haphazard three weeks into the crisis.

“Our work must be very organized and systematic,” he said. “We are working on that.” </s> Rohingya Muslim children, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, follow a truck carrying people throwing chocolates at them near Mushani refugee camp in Bangladesh, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017. United Nations agencies say an estimated 409,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when deadly attacks by a Rohingya insurgent group on police posts prompted Myanmar's military to launch "clearance operations" in Rakhine state. Those fleeing have described indiscriminate attacks by security forces and Buddhist mobs. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin) </s> Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh - Rohingya militants in Myanmar, whose raids sparked an army crackdown that has seen nearly 300 000 Muslim Rohingya flee to Bangladesh, on Sunday declared a unilateral ceasefire but the government declared it would not negotiate with "terrorists".

The United Nations said 294 000 bedraggled and exhausted Rohingya refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since the militants' attacks on Myanmar security forces in neighbouring Rakhine state on August 25 sparked a major military backlash.

Tens of thousands more are believed to be on the move inside Rakhine after more than a fortnight without shelter, food and water.

"The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations," the group said in a statement on its Twitter account.

It urged "all humanitarian actors" to resume aid delivery to "all victims of humanitarian crisis irrespective of ethnic or religious background" during the one-month ceasefire until October 9.

In addition to Rohingya, some 27 000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists as well as Hindus have also fled violence in the northern part of Rakhine state.

ARSA called on Myanmar to "reciprocate this humanitarian pause" in fighting.

Myanmar, which has previously labelled ARSA as "terrorists", appeared to reject the overture.

"We have no policy to negotiate with terrorists," Zaw Htay, a senior government spokesman, tweeted late Sunday.

Aung San Suu Kyi's government has come in for strong international criticism over the military's treatment of the Rohingya - including the alleged laying of mines along the border to prevent those who fled from returning.

Three Rohingya are reported to have been killed by a mine and others including children have been injured.

Mainly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognise its stateless Muslim Rohingya community, labelling them "Bengalis" - illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Rohingya refugees say the army operations against ARSA led to mass killing of civilians and the burning of hundreds of villages, sending them across the border.

International aid programmes in Rakhine have been severely curtailed, as the fighting tore through parts of the state.

India's foreign ministry called for an immediate end to the violence, urging the situation "be handled with restraint and maturity".

Thousands are arriving in Bangladesh each day, joining already overcrowded camps of Rohingya who have fled Myanmar over decades of troubles. The UN refugee agency UNHCR gave the latest figure of 294 000 for the new arrivals.

The UN has appealed for urgent donations of $77 million.

Bangladesh already hosts around 400 000 Rohingya from previous crises.

The Red Cross in Bangladesh welcomed the ceasefire pledge as aid agencies struggle to meet the needs of an "overwhelming crisis", battling monsoon rains to deliver relief to people who have fled with few belongings.

"How can you handle such a big influx of people? They want shelter, they want a safe place," Misada Saif, Prevention and Communication Coordinator of the ICRC Bangladesh delegation, told AFP.

Cradling her naked screaming infant, Rohingya refugee Zohra Begum was close to tears as several hundred people were ordered to leave a strip of forest alongside the beach near Shamlapur, where families were clearing land with hoes to build shelters.

"We went to all the camps but there was no place to stay. That's why we came here," she told AFP. "If we have to move from here, where will we go? We will die."

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh say ethnic Rakhine Buddhists joined Myanmar's security forces in the indiscriminate killing of villagers.

But ethnic Rakhine villagers accuse militants of murdering civilians while the government says fleeing Rohingya set fire to their own homes to forment fear and anger against the authorities.

At the makeshift camp near Shamlapur, Rohingya refugees doubted a ceasefire would allow their return any time soon.

"They (Myanmar army) are saying 'go away or we'll burn all of you'. How can we believe a ceasefire will have any effect?" Hafez Ahmed, 60, told AFP.

But Hashem Ullah, a 33-year-old farmer from a village west of Maungdaw, said he would return "if I got compensation, and they accept us as Rohingya".

How can we live like this here?" he added, gesturing to the swampy earth.

ARSA says it is fighting to defend the Rohingya from persecution in Myanmar.

The army says it has killed nearly 400 militants so far, while some Rohingya refugees have complained they were forced to fight by ARSA.

The first ARSA attacks in October last year were less ambitious, but the subsequent military response by a security force notorious for its scorched-earth response to insurgency sent 90 000 Rohingya fleeing across the border.

That means over a third of the estimated 1.1 million Rohingya in Rakhine state have fled in less than a year. </s> COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh — The International Organization for Migration said Wednesday that 18,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled fresh violence in Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh, with "hundreds and hundreds" stranded in no man's land at the countries' border.

Sanjukta Sahany, a spokeswoman for the IOM in Cox's Bazar, on the Bangladesh border with Myanmar, released the latest figures as human rights groups and advocates for the Rohingya say the Myanmar army was retaliating for attacks by Rohingya militants by burning down villages and shooting civilians.

The Myanmar government blames Rohingya insurgents for the violence, including the arson. The official death toll in the violence was 96 as of Sunday, and the actual number is likely to be higher.

A majority of Myanmar's estimated 1 million Rohingya live in the northern part of Rakhine state, where they have faced persecution in the Buddhist-majority country. Last week, Rohingya insurgents launched coordinated attacks against police posts, setting off retaliation by government forces.

Sahany said the Rohingya crisis was not an issue between Myanmar and Bangladesh but of international concern.

Ali Hossain, Cox's Bazar district's top government official, told The Associated Press that their resources were under huge stress after some 87,000 Rohingya entered Bangladesh since October last year and now another 18,000 in just one week.

"I have already informed the government's high-ups about the trouble we are facing here," he said. "This is a very complex situation."

In another development, police said a boat carrying an unknown number of Rohingya capsized in the Naf River, leaving at least four dead. The boat was trying to enter Bangladesh through Shah Porir Island in the Bay of Bengal when it sank, said police official Main Uddin.

He said they recovered four bodies and "most probably" many others were missing.

"Our search is on. We don't know how many were on the boat," he said.

Also Wednesday, Bangladesh's border guards turned back 171 Rohingya after detaining them at different border points over the last two days, said Col. S.M. Ariful islam, a director of the Border Guard Bangladesh.

He said that border guards provided them with food and medicine before pushing them back, but it was not clear what happened to them later.

Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingya as a legitimate native ethnic minority and has denied citizenship and rights to most of them. </s> Rohingya militants, who sparked an army crackdown in Myanmar that has seen nearly 300,000 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh, Sunday declared a unilateral ceasefire to allow aid to reach the increasingly desperate fugitives. The United Nations said 294,000 bedraggled and exhausted Rohingya refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since the militants’ attacks on Myanmar security forces in Rakhine state on August 25 sparked a major military backlash.

Tens of thousands more are believed to be on the move inside Rakhine after more than a fortnight without shelter, food and water. Three Rohingya are reported to have been killed by a mine near the border allegedly laid by Myanmar security forces to stop the fugitives returning.

Mainly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognise its stateless Muslim Rohingya community, labelling them as “Bengalis” –illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. A further 27,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists as well as Hindus have also fled violence that has gripped the northern part of the state.

“The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations,” the group said in a statement on its official Twitter account. It urged “all humanitarian actors” to resume aid delivery to “all victims of humanitarian crisis irrespective of ethnic or religious background” during the one-month ceasefire period until October 9.

ARSA called on Myanmar to “reciprocate this humanitarian pause” in fighting. There was no immediate response from Myanmar’s military, but yesterday authorities said they would set up three relief camps in Rohingya-majority areas.

Rohingya refugees say army operations against ARSA led to mass killings and the burning of hundreds of villages, sending them across the border. International aid programmes in Rakhine have been severely curtailed, as the fighting tore through parts of the state.

India’s foreign ministry called for an immediate end to the violence, urging the situation “be handled with restraint and maturity”. Thousands are arriving in Bangladesh each day, joining already overcrowded camps of Rohingya who have fled Myanmar over decades of troubles. The UN refugee agency UNHCR gave the latest figure of 294,000 for the new arrivals.

The UN has appealed for urgent donations of $77 million. Bangladesh already hosts around 400,000 Rohingya from previous crises.

The Red Cross in Bangladesh welcomed the ceasefire pledge as aid agencies struggle to meet the needs of an “overwhelming crisis”, battling monsoon rains to deliver relief to people who have fled with few belongings. “How can you handle such a big influx of people? They want shelter, they want a safe place,” Misada Saif, Prevention and Communication Coordinator of the ICRC Bangladesh delegation, told AFP.

Cradling her naked screaming infant, Rohingya refugee Zohra Begum was close to tears as several hundred people were ordered to leave a strip of forest alongside the beach near Shamlapur, where families were clearing land with hoes to build shelters. “We went to all the camps but there was no place to stay. That’s why we came here,” she told AFP. “If we have to move from here, where will we go? We will die.”

Better-known locally as Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement), ARSA launched coordinated raids using hundreds of militants on August 25 on around 30 police posts and state offices in the north of Rakhine state. The backlash by security forces prompted the Rohingya exodus.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh say ethnic Rakhine Buddhists joined security forces in the indiscriminate killing of villagers. In an area split by claim and counterclaim, Rakhine villagers accuse militants of murdering their civilians while the government says fleeing Rohingya set fire to their own homes to forment fear and anager against the authorities.

At the makeshift camp near Shamlapur, Rohingya refugees doubted a ceasefire would allow their return any time soon. “They (Myanmar army) are saying ‘go away or we’ll burn all of you’. How can we believe a ceasefire will have any effect?” Hafez Ahmed, 60, told AFP.

But Hashem Ullah, a 33-year-old farmer from a village west of Maungdaw, said he would return “if I got compensation, and they accept us as Rohingya”. How can we live like this here?” he added, gesturing to the swampy earth.

ARSA says it is fighting to defend the Rohingya from persecution in Myanmar. But Myanmar labels them “extremist Bengali terrorists” intent on carving out an Islamic enclave for the Rohingya. The army says it has killed nearly 400 militants so far, while some Rohingya refugees have complained they were forced to fight by ARSA.

The first ARSA attacks in October last year were less ambitious, but the subsequent military response by a security force notorious for its scorched earth response to insurgency sent 90,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border. That means over a third of the estimated 1.1 million Rohingya in Rakhine state have fled in less than a year.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App </s> Myanmar's government on Monday faced growing pressure from the United Nations and protesters around the world over its violent military campaign that has already forced nearly 300,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee the country. Photo: Reuters

UKHIYA, Bangladesh—The Bangladeshi prime minister visited a refugee camp that has absorbed hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees and demanded that Myanmar “take steps to take their nationals back.”

“We will not tolerate injustice,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said at a rally Tuesday at the Kutupalong refugee camp, near the border town of... </s> COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh/YANGON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - About 1,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing escalating violence in Myanmar had been halted at the border with Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security officials said on Saturday, as fresh fighting erupted in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state.

The death toll from attacks staged by Rohingya insurgents on Friday has climbed to 89, including 77 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, Myanmar's army said.

The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since a similar offensive last October that prompted a big military sweep beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.

At least one fresh attack had taken place on Saturday, according to a Myanmar security source.

National leader Aung San Suu Kyi condemned Friday's early morning raids - in which Rohingya insurgents wielding guns, sticks and home-made bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base - while the government evacuated staff and villagers to safety.

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as the biggest challenge for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's 16-month old administration.

Suu Kyi has been accused of not speaking out for the persecuted minority and of defending the army's brutal counter-offensive after the October attacks.

In a sign that both sides were bracing for more violence, about 1,000 Rohingya arrived at the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and got stranded there, a Bangladeshi border guard and Mohammad Ali Hossain, deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar district near the Myanmar border, told Reuters.

"Many Rohingya people are trying to enter the country, but we have a zero tolerance policy - no one will be allowed," said Hossain.

Bangladeshi officials regularly advocate a hardline approach to refugees in official interviews, but typically end up letting the refugees through. There are hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and 87,000 have arrived since October.

The Myanmar army operation last year was heavily criticised internationally amid reports of civilian killings, rape and arson, sparking allegations by the United Nations of crimes against humanity. Suu Kyi is blocking U.N.-mandated probe into the allegations.

Observers worry that the latest attacks will spark an even more aggressive army response and trigger communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhist ethnic Rakhines.

"25 Aug attack in N Rakine utmost concern! Violence must stop in Rakhine. Heartfelt sorrow 4 deaths. Beg all sides 2 take restraint! Everyone!" said Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar on Twitter.

In a statement late on Friday, Suu Kyi "strongly condemned" "brutal attacks by terrorists on security forces in Rakhine State."

"I would like to commend the members of the police and security forces who have acted with great courage in the face of many challenges," she added.

The government said it had evacuated officials, teachers and hundreds of non-Rohingya villagers to army bases and main police stations.

"Some will be evacuated by helicopters and some will be taken out by the security forces," a military source based in Rakhine told Reuters.

Military sources and residents told Reuters the fiercest fighting took place only a few kilometres east and south of the centre of the major town of Maungdaw in the hamlets of Myo Thu Gyi and Nyaung Chaung.

A resident in Maungdaw contacted by Reuters by telephone said he heard what sounded like shelling in the direction of the Myo Thu Gyi.

"A lot of police and army vehicles went to the area as the fighting erupted between the security forces and Muslim groups," said the source.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) which instigated the October attacks claimed responsibility for the offensive, presenting it as a defence against the Myanmar army.

Myanmar declared ARSA, previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, a terrorist organisation in the wake of the attacks. President Htin Kyaw's office and Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing also "discussed the issues of applying more security forces and using helicopters", the government said.

Kori Mullah, a Rohingya resident from Maungdaw, said his family did not dare to go out of the house and the town was tense and quiet.

"The roads are empty. Schools, shops and markets are all closed down. People don't go out," he said.

Rakhine Buddhist villagers from Taman Thar village, some 50 km (30 miles) north of Maungdaw, said they spent Friday night at a monastery with 500 non-Muslim residents of the area.

"The military patrol arrived near our village, so there were no clashes at night," Maung Thein Hla, one of the fleeing residents, told Reuters by telephone.

"We felt better about our security because the army was near us." (Additional reporting by Wa Lone in YANGON and Krishna N. Das in NEW DELHI; Writing by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
More than 123,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh due to escalating violence by the Myanmar Army.