Villages torched, Rakhine Rohingyas throng camps

Villages torched, Rakhine Rohingyas throng camps

Sittwe (Myanmar): Thousands of displaced people were clustered in boats and on bare ground near overcrowded camps in western Myanmar on Saturday as the toll from vicious communal violence rose above 80, officials said.
    Seething resentment between Buddhists and Muslims erupted this week in new unrest in Rakhine state that has seen whole neighbourhoods razed and caused boatloads of people to flee from Rohingya minority areas. The latest fighting, which has prompted international warnings that the nation’s reforms could be under threat, has killed killed 36 women and 46 men, according to a government official.
    “Altogether 82 people died and 129 people were injured,” the official said. It was unclear how many from each community were killed.
    Tens of thousands of mainly Muslim Rohingya are already crammed into squalid camps around the state capital Sittwe after deadly violence in June and Rakhine state officials said the latest bloodshed had caused an influx of boats carrying around 6,000 people to the city.
    “The local government is planning to relocate them to a suitable place. We are having problems because more people are coming,” said Rakhine government spokesman Hla Thein. Authorities struggled to provide aid to the displaced, some of whom were still on boats while several thousand had docked on an island opposite Sittwe.
    Human Rights Watch on Saturday released satellite images showing “extensive destruction of homes and other property in a predominantly Rohingya Muslim area” of Kyaukpyu — where a pipeline to transport Myanmar gas to China begins.
    The images show a stark contrast between the coastal area as seen in March this year, packed with hundreds of dwellings and fringed with boats, and in the aftermath of the latest violence, where virtually all structures appear to have been wiped from the landscape. HRW said 633 buildings and 178 houseboats and barges had been torched in the area, one of seven townships affected by the latest strife. The group urged the government to protect the Rohingya. Rakhine government spokesman Win Myaing said that the situation was now “calm”.
    Myanmar’s 800,000 Rohingya are seen as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh by the government and many Burmese and face discrimination. AFP