By AP News
Muslim villagers are relocated to secure areas in Sittwe, capital of Rakhine state in western Burma. Pic: AP.
The conflict pitting ethnic Rakhine Buddhists against stateless Rohingya Muslims in coastal Rakhine state marks some of the worst sectarian unrest recorded in Burma in years. President Thein Sein has declared an emergency in Rakhine state and warned that the spiraling violence could threaten the democratic reforms tentatively transforming the country after half a century of military rule.
From Friday through Monday, the evening’s news report said, 21 people have been killed, 21 wounded and 1,662 houses burned down around Rakhine state. The mass violence started Friday in Maungdaw township, when what was said to be a mob of 1,000 Muslims — described as “terrorists” in the state media — went on a rampage and had to be restrained by armed troops.
(ALSO ON AC: Burma riots: What the media isn’t telling you)
The violence afterward spread, including to the state capital, Sittwe.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch urged Bangladesh Wednesday to keep its border open to people seeking refuge from sectarian violence in western Burma.
It aid in a statement that Bangladesh should also allow independent humanitarian agencies free and unfettered access to the border areas.
It expressed its concern after Bangladesh on Tuesday turned away three boats carrying 1,000 Muslims fleeing violence in neighboring Burma, bringing to 1,500 the number of refugees intercepted in recent days.
“By closing its border when violence … is out of control, Bangladesh is putting lives at grave risk,” said Bill Frelick, Refugee Program director at Human Rights Watch.
“Bangladesh has an obligation under international law to keep its border open to people fleeing threats to their lives and provide them protection,” Frelick said.
It also urged other governments to provide humanitarian assistance and other support for the refugees.
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said Tuesday at a news conference in the capital, Dhaka, that it was not in Bangladesh’s interest to accept any refugees because the impoverished country’s resources already are strained.
Some still slipped into Bangladesh, and one 50-year-old refugee allegedly wounded by gunfire from Burma security forces died Tuesday at a hospital in Chittagong, a doctor said. Two other Rohingyas are being treated for bullet wounds, said Anisur Rahman, a doctor at Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
On Wednesday, the Daily Star newspaper published a photograph on its front page of two women and four children who reached Shah Pori Island in the Bay of Bengal a day earlier, reportedly after spending five days at sea.
Burma considers the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. Bangladesh says Rohingya have been living in Burma for centuries and should be recognized there as citizens.
In the 1990s, about 250,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh in the face of alleged persecution by the military junta.
Later, Burma took back most of them, leaving some 28,000 in two camps run by the government and the United Nations.
Bangladesh has been unsuccessfully negotiating with Burma for years to send them back and, in the meantime, tens of thousands of others have entered Bangladesh illegally in recent years.
Comments