Reports of shootings, allegedly by Myanmar police, at a camp for Rohingya refugees in Rakhine state have sparked concern by United Nations officials.

Knut Ostby, the U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, tweeted that he is "deeply concerned about the reports of shooting in Ah Nauk Ye camp in central #Rakhine, #Myanmar which holds IDPs who fled violence in 2012. I call for calm, non-violence and restraint. "

I am deeply concerned about the reports of shooting in Ah Nauk Ye camp in central #Rakhine, #Myanmar which holds IDPs who fled violence in 2012. I call for calm, non-violence and restraint. Our statement: pic.twitter.com/Fz2dd2SFLx — Knut Ostby (@knutostby) November 18, 2018

The Reuters news agency quotes eyewitnesses as saying Myanmar police shot and injured four Rohingyas Sunday, while detaining two men accused of smuggling people out of a camp for displaced people in western Rakhine state.

The report said about 20 police descended on Ah Nauk Ye camp, 15 kilometers east of the state's capital Sittwe, and apprehended the two men who were accused of owning the "rickety vessel," used in an attempt to smuggle 160 people, including 25 children, out of the camp. The watercraft was stopped south of Yangoon.

An eyewitness told Reuters that when the police came into the camp "people from the camp went out to look and police shot at people."

The police, however, told the news agency that Rohingyas surrounded them with swords and threw stones at them. "I heard that Bengali from the camp tried to grab the arrested people back from the police and police had to fire warning shots," police inspector Than Htay from a nearby police station, said.

People from Myanmar call the Rohingya Muslims "Bengali," implying they are from Bangladesh and not from Myanmar.

None of the first Rohingya Muslims on a list to return to Myanmar showed up at their departure points in Bangladesh Thursday, the first day they were scheduled to be sent back under a repatriation agreement between the two nations.

About 150 Rohingya refugees were slated to be transported from the crowded camps in Cox's Bazar back to northern Rakhine state, the region where they and more than 700,000 others escaped in August 2017 from a scorched earth campaign by Myanmar's military in response to a series of attacks committed by Rohingya militants. Some of the refugees on the list are believed to have gone into hiding to avoid being sent back.

Meanwhile, about 1,000 angry Rohingyas, including children, demonstrated against the repatriation effort at one of the camps.

Bangladesh Refugee Commissioner Abul Kalam told reporters that the refugees cannot be forced to return to Myanmar under the terms of the agreement.

Human rights groups are calling on Myanmar and Bangladesh to end their plans to send Rohingya Muslims back to Rakhine State, where the United Nations says they are subject to extrajudicial killings and other atrocities carried out by Myanmar's military.

Amnesty International called the organized return of the Rohingya a "reckless move, which puts lives at risk."

"These women, men and children would be sent back into the Myanmar military's grasp with no protection guarantees, to live alongside those who torched their homes and whose bullets they fled," said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty's East and Southeast Asia director.

Bill Frelick, the refugee rights director for Human Rights Watch, said Dhaka "will be stunned to see how quickly international opinion turns against it if it starts sending unwilling Rohingya refugees back into harm's way in Myanmar."

A special U.N. fact-finding mission said the military acted "with genocidal intent" against the Rohingyas, citing numerous atrocities such as extrajudicial killings, gang rapes and the torching of entire villages. </s> YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar police shot and injured four Rohingya Muslims on Sunday, after detaining two men accused of smuggling people out of a camp for displaced people in western Rakhine state, a witness and police told Reuters.

Some 20 police entered Ah Nauk Ye camp, about 15 km (9 miles) east of the state capital Sittwe on Sunday morning, apprehending the two men accused of owning a boat used in an attempt to smuggle 106 Rohingya out of the country on Friday.

The rickety vessel, which carried 25 children among its passengers, had been bound for Malaysia when authorities stopped it south of Yangon, detaining those on board. The incident, and similar recent boat departures, have raised fears of a fresh wave of dangerous voyages after a 2015 regional crackdown on people smugglers.

Maung Maung Aye, a 27-year-old Rohingya Muslim from the camp who witnessed the shooting, told Reuters four people were injured in the incident, with two of them in serious condition.

“People from the camp went out to look and police shot at people,” he told Reuters by phone.

Police said the Rohingya surrounded them with swords and threw stones at them, injuring some officers.

“I heard that Bengali from the camp tried to grab the arrested people back from the police and police had to fire warning shots. I heard some Bengali got injured. I don’t know the details,” said police inspector Than Htay from a nearby police station.

Many people in Myanmar call the Rohingya “Bengali,” implying they are interlopers from Bangladesh.

Maung Maung Aye disputed that version of events. He said the Rohingya did not attack the police or try to grab the arrested men. He said police fired at residents and not into the sky.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay did not answer calls seeking comment.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have been confined to camps outside Sittwe since violence swept Rakhine in 2012. They are denied free movement, access to decent healthcare and education.

In August last year, Solidarites International, an international aid group, warned the conditions at Ah Nauk Ye, home to more than 4,000 Rohingya, were severe.

It said the “natural environment” at the camp was “unsuitable to human settlement” and warned of water shortages, poor access to livelihood opportunities and communal violence.

For years, the Rohingya have boarded boats organized by smugglers in the dry months between November and March, when the sea is calm. The perilous journey to Thailand or Malaysia, often undertaken in overcrowded vessels, has cost many lives.

The 106 Rohingya detained off Yangon on Friday were put on a navy ship destined for the Rakhine camps on Sunday.

More than 700,000 Rohingya fled a brutal army crackdown in the northern part of Rakhine last year, according to U.N. agencies. U.N. investigators have accused the Myanmar army of “genocidal intent” and ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar denies the allegations genocide, saying it was battling terrorists. Attacks by Rohingya insurgents preceded the army’s crackdown that began in late August 2017. </s> COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Bangladesh police shot dead a third Rohingya refugee on Monday (Aug 26) after they were accused of the murder of a ruling party official that has sparked anger among the local population.

Nearly a million Rohingya live in squalid camps in south-east Bangladesh, 740,000 of whom fled a 2017 military offensive against the Muslim minority in Myanmar.

Police said Mohammad Hasan, a suspected Rohingya "dacoit" or gang member, was shot dead after he allegedly opened fire at officers during a raid to arrest him at Jadimura refugee camp.

"He is an accused in the murder of Omar Faruk," local police chief Prodeep Kumar Das told AFP, referring to a ruling Awami League party youth wing official who was shot in the head by suspected Rohingya criminals on Thursday.

On Saturday police said they had shot dead two Rohingya refugees at the same refugee camp in the Cox's Bazar district over their alleged roles in the murder.

Rights activists, who asked not to be named, said they believe the two Rohingya men were killed by police in what appeared to be a staged encounter.

The incident comes days after a second failed attempt to repatriate the refugees which saw not a single Rohingya turn up to return across the border to conflict-scarred Rakhine state.

On Sunday, the Rohingya marked two years since the military crackdown in Myanmar with some 200,000 rallying in a refugee camp where refugee leaders vowed they won't return home unless their rights and security are ensured.

Faruk's murder had sparked anger among the local population, with hundreds of furious people blocking a key highway leading to the camp for hours on Thursday, burning tyres and vandalising shops visited by refugees.

Rohingya refugees have said the recent bloodshed has created an atmosphere of fear in the camp, where security has been tightened.

With the latest death, at least 33 Rohingya have been killed by Bangladeshi police and security forces since the exodus in August 2017, a police inspector Ruhul Amin told AFP.

He said that most were suspected drug traffickers, accused of smuggling yaba, a popular methamphetamine pill from across the Myanmar border.

UN investigators have said the 2017 violence warrants the prosecution of top Myanmar generals for "genocide". </s> TEKNAF: Bangladesh police said they had shot dead two Rohingya refugees during a gunfight in a refugee camp on Saturday (Aug 24) after the pair were accused of killing a ruling party official.

Nearly a million Rohingya live in squalid camps in southeast Bangladesh, 740,000 of whom fled a 2017 military offensive against the Muslim minority in Myanmar.

Rights activists, who asked not to be named, said they believe the two Rohingya men were killed by police in what appeared to be a staged encounter.

The incident comes two days after a second failed attempt to repatriate the refugees, which saw not a single Rohingya turn up to return across the border to conflict-scarred Rakhine state.

"Both men died as they were rushed to a hospital," local police inspector Rasel Ahmad told AFP, adding that the incident took place in Jadimura refugee camp in Cox's Bazar district.

READ: 'We are hostages': Two years on, Rohingya still in Myanmar trapped by new war

Ahmad said the two Rohingya were shot and critically injured during a manhunt for suspects after a youth wing official of the ruling Awami League party was killed, allegedly by armed refugees.

Awami League official Omar Faruk was shot in the head on Thursday, at a settlement near the border town of Teknaf, Ahmad said.

His murder had sparked anger among the local population, with hundreds of furious people blocking a key highway leading to the camps for hours, burning tyres and vandalising shops visited by refugees.

Ahmad said the two men killed on Saturday had been identified as key suspects in Faruk's killing and added that they had been shot while the officers were ambushed by the suspected criminals.

"It was wrong of the refugees to agitate the locals. We want justice in the quickest possible time," said Abdul Matin, a friend of the deceased politician.

Refugees said the recent bloodshed has created an atmosphere of fear in the camps, where security has been tightened.

The killings came as the Rohingya are set to commemorate the second anniversary of their mass influx into Bangladesh from Rakhine after the brutal military campaign.

UN investigators have said the 2017 violence warrants the prosecution of top Myanmar generals for "genocide".

On Thursday Bangladesh's second attempt to start repatriation of Rohingya back to Myanmar faltered after the refugees said they won't return unless their security is ensured and they were granted citizenship in their homeland. </s> A policeman in Myanmar fled the scene of a deadly mob attack on Rohingya Muslims that has put the troubled western state of Rakhine on edge, two police officials said on Wednesday.

A group of Rakhine Buddhists threw bricks at Rohingya men in the state capital of Sittwe on Tuesday, killing one - identified as Maung Nu, also known as Monir Ahmad, 55 - the office of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said in a statement.

Two police officers told Reuters an unarmed junior policeman was with the Muslim men at the time of the attack but was unable to protect them from the mob.

"We questioned the young policeman. He said he tried to stop them but he wasn't able to and ran away back to the police station," said Colonel Myo Thu Soe, spokesman for the home affairs ministry in the capital, Naypyitaw.

No one had been arrested for the attack, but an investigation was going on, he said.

Rakhine State has seen the most serious religious violence in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar since the military began to end its decades of strict rule, with hundreds of Rohingya Muslims killed and more than 140,000 people displaced there in communal unrest in 2012.

Suu Kyi, who came to power last year as part of the transition from military rule, has emphasized the importance of the rule of law in solving conflict between Buddhists and minority Muslims.

Tension has been running high in the state since an army crackdown in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks in October, but Sittwe has not seen a repeat of the communal clashes of 2012.

On Tuesday, seven Muslim men had traveled into Sittwe from a camp on its outskirts housing people displaced in 2012. They got into an argument with a Buddhist ethnic Rakhine man over the purchase of a boat, attracting the attention of residents who began to attack them.

"The people didn’t attack the police because he's the same race," said Lieutenant Colonel Win Naung of Sittwe district police. </s> YANGON
• Myanmar troops opened fire on hundreds of fleeing Rohingya villagers with mortar shells and machine guns yesterday, said an Agence France-Presse reporter at the scene and Bangladesh border guards.

The firing occurred at Ghumdhum border post, where the villagers have been stranded since Friday after fresh violence broke out in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state.

"They have fired on civilians, mostly women and children, hiding in the hills near the (border) zero line," Border Guard Bangladesh station chief Manzurul Hassan told AFP. "They fired machine guns and mortar shells suddenly, targeting the civilians."

It was not immediately clear if there were any injuries.

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar are trying to cross the border with Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security officials said yesterday. Denied entry by the authorities, many were left without shelter in no-man's land on the border, or forced to return to villages, trapping them between militants and security forces.

The death toll from widespread attacks staged by Rohingya insurgents on Friday has climbed to 96, including nearly 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said, prompting it to evacuate staff and villagers from some areas.

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

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Late on Friday, she condemned the morning raids in which insurgents wielding guns, sticks and homemade bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base.

The government said there had been several large clashes involving hundreds of Rohingya across north-western Rakhine yesterday. The fiercest fighting took place on the outskirts of the major town of Maungdaw, near the Alodaw Pyae Buddhist monastery.

Maungdaw resident Nay Myo Lin, 27, told Reuters by telephone that security forces opened fire on scores of what appeared to be Muslim men with guns near the monastery.

The government said in a statement: "Extremist Bengali terrorists are attacking using man-made mines... swords, sticks, guns. They also killed Islamic religious people of their own faith who were village administrators."

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which instigated the October attacks, has claimed responsibility for the offensive, presenting it as a defence against the Myanmar army. </s> A Border Guard Police officer stands at a police post that was previously attacked by a Muslim terrorist group in Kyee Kan Pyin Buthidaung.

YANGON, Myanmar — An attack by ethnic Rohingya militants in western Myanmar left 12 security personnel and 77 Rohingya Muslims dead in a dramatic escalation of communal violence that has plagued the region, as the United States urged authorities to avoid a response that would inflame the tensions.

The office of the country's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said Friday that military and border police responded to the attacks by launching "clearance operations."

Police fought off groups of as many as 100 Rohingya attackers armed with guns, machetes and homemade grenades. The captured weapons were shown in photos posted online by the government.

A witness in Maungdaw township in Rakhine state, contacted by phone, said soldiers entered her village at about 10 a.m. Friday, burned homes and property, and shot dead at least 10 people.

The witness, who asked to be identified by her nickname, Emmar, because of fear of retribution, said villagers fled in many directions but mostly to a nearby mountain range. She said gunshots and explosions could be heard and smoke could still be seen Friday evening.

A militant group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, took responsibility for the Thursday night attacks on more than 25 locations, saying they were in defense of Rohingya communities that had been brutalized by government forces. It issued its statement on Twitter on an account deemed legitimate by advocates of Rohingya rights.

Suu Kyi called the attacks "a calculated attempt to undermine the efforts of those seeking to build peace and harmony in Rakhine state."

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in Washington that as security forces act to prevent further violence and bring the perpetrators to justice, they should respect the rule of law and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.

She said the attacks underscored the importance of the government implementing recommendations of a commission chaired by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, which published its final report on Thursday recommending that the government act quickly to improve economic development and social justice in Rakhine state to resolve violence between Buddhists and the Rohingya.

Suu Kyi's office said on its Facebook page that the attacks were intended to coincide with the release of Annan's report.

The clashes were deadlier than an attack by the militants on three border posts last October that killed nine policemen and set off months of brutal counterinsurgency operations by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya communities in Rakhine state. Human rights groups accused the army of carrying out massive human rights abuses including killing, rape and burning down more than 1,000 homes and other buildings.

The army's abuses fueled further resentment toward the government among the Muslim Rohingya, most of whom are considered by Myanmar's Buddhist majority to be illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and are denied citizenship and its rights. ARSA took advantage of the resentment by stepping up recruitment of members.

The Rohingya have long faced severe discrimination and were the targets of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people — predominantly Rohingya — from their homes to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain.

According to the United Nations, more than 80,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since last October's clashes.

Annan also condemned the new attacks, saying "no cause can justify such brutality and senseless killing" and urging the government to exercise restraint and "ensure that innocent civilians are not harmed." </s> YANGON: A policeman in Myanmar fled the scene of a deadly mob attack on Rohingya Muslims that has put the troubled western state of Rakhine on edge, two police officials said on Wednesday.

A group of Rakhine Buddhists threw bricks at Rohingya men in the state capital of Sittwe on Tuesday, killing one - identified as Maung Nu, also known as Monir Ahmad, 55 - the office of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said in a statement.

Two police officers told Reuters an unarmed junior policeman was with the Muslim men at the time of the attack but was unable to protect them from the mob.

"We questioned the young policeman. He said he tried to stop them but he wasn't able to and ran away back to the police station," said Colonel Myo Thu Soe, spokesman for the home affairs ministry in the capital, Naypyitaw.

No one had been arrested for the attack, but an investigation was going on, he said.

Rakhine State has seen the most serious religious violence in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar since the military began to end its decades of strict rule, with hundreds of Rohingya Muslims killed and more than 140,000 people displaced there in communal unrest in 2012.

Suu Kyi, who came to power last year as part of the transition from military rule, has emphasised the importance of the rule of law in solving conflict between Buddhists and minority Muslims.

Tension has been running high in the state since an army crackdown in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks in October, but Sittwe has not seen a repeat of the communal clashes of 2012.

On Tuesday, seven Muslim men had travelled into Sittwe from a camp on its outskirts housing people displaced in 2012. They got into an argument with a Buddhist ethnic Rakhine man over the purchase of a boat, attracting the attention of residents who began to attack them.

"The people didn’t attack the police because he's the same race," said Lieutenant Colonel Win Naung of Sittwe district police.

Myanmar does not recognise the more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine as citizens. Many in Myanmar consider the them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Myo Thu Soe said the policeman on the scene was unarmed and inexperienced and unable to protect the Rohingya men.

Despite the fact they had a police escort, Myo Thu Soe said the Muslim men were not authorised to travel to the area.

Since the 2012 violence the city's Muslims have been confined to camps or a single city ward, unable to travel freely without a police escort. </s> Armed men believed to be from the long-oppressed Rohingya Muslim minority launched a coordinated assault on three border police posts in the early hours Sunday, killing nine police, injuring five and making off with dozens of weapons and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

Military personnel and police reinforcements have poured into the Muslim-majority township of Maungdaw, northern Rakhine State, and have clashed with groups of up to 300 men, armed with pistols, swords and knives, according to official reports.

Human rights groups and advocates for the stateless Rohingya have voiced concern that the civilian population may be caught up in the authorities' violent response.

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said that her government was "exercising the rule of law" in dealing with the attacks, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said on Thursday.

Authorities had not yet confirmed who was behind the attacks, Suu Kyi said on Wednesday.

The military's official newspaper, Myawady, said that another 10 alleged attackers were killed, and a rifle was seized, in a clash on Tuesday morning at Kyetyoepyin village, Maungdaw Township.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, the military accused armed attackers of setting fire to 25 houses after an aborted attack on border police quarters in Kyikanpyin village, the site of one of Sunday's attacks.

The killings bring the total death toll in northern Rakhine State since Sunday to 39, including 13 security personnel.

The 26 alleged attackers reported killed include several who a local resident told Reuters were shot while unarmed and fleeing soldiers.

Campaign group Fortify Rights said on Wednesday it had received reports of extrajudicial killings in the area and called on Myanmar's government to "protect civilians regardless of religion or ethnicity."

Authorities have also detained four men, identified as local Muslims, who they allege were involved in the attacks.

The Rohingya bore the brunt of intercommunal clashes in Rakhine in 2012, in which more 100 people were killed. They make up most of the 125,000 people still living in displacement camps in Rakhine State and face severe restrictions on their movements.
Myanmar police fire warning shots at a crowd of Rohingya Muslims after arresting two human smugglers at a camp for displaced persons near Sittwe, Rakhine State. Four people are injured directly by the gunfire, prompting the U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator to call for "calm and restraint".