More and more Rohingya Muslims are fleeing the Western Rakhine state due to the ongoing violence. Recent reports suggest that the Myanmar’s military may be behind planting land mines in the way of these fleeing Muslims. The recent attack on Sunday caused the death of two people.
In the past two weeks, 300,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to the border of Bangladesh.
Reporters at the Bangladesh border from Andra Pradesh reported seeing an elderly woman with her leg blown off by a landmine.
Commanding officer of the Bangladesh border guard in Teknaf, Lt. Col. S.M. Ariful Islam said, “It may not be land mines, but I know there have been isolated cases of Myanmar soldiers planting explosives three to four days ago.”
On Sunday, reporters bombarded the Myanmar presidential spokesman Zaw Htay who refused to answer any calls or release a statement.
An Amnesty International official Tirana Hassan, said in a statement on Sunday, “All indications point to the Myanmar security forces deliberately targeting locations that Rohingya refugees use as crossing points.”
The violence began on 25th August when a group of Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar’s police and paramilitary posts. The insurgent group claimed it was in an attempt to protect their ethnic minority from oppression by the security forces in a Buddhist majority country.
This led to the military taking out a clearance operation to remove the insurgents. But reports from the refugees point out that the Myanmar military is attacking civilians and burning down Rohingya villages.
The Rohingya community has been struggling for rights in Myanmar. They are refused citizenship even though they have centuries old roots in the Rakhine region. But Myanmar continues to consider the Rohingya as illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
The first anti Muslim riots took off in 2012 where nearly 100,000 Rohingya’s were forced out of Rakhine.
