Some 45,000 Rohingya flee following allegations of beheading and burning in Myanmar | Rohingya News

UN rights chief Volker Turk urges Bangladesh and other countries to “provide effective protection” to remaining refugees.

Escalating violence in Myanmar's conflict-torn Rakhine state has forced another 45,000 Rohingya from the Rohingya minority to flee, the United Nations has warned, amid allegations of beheadings, killings and property fires.

Clashes have rocked Rakhine state since Arakan Army (AA) rebels attacked the ruling military government's forces in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely been in effect since. the 2021 military coup. The fighting has caught the Muslim minority group, long seen as outsiders by the majority of Buddhist residents, whether on the government or rebel side, in the middle.

The AA says it is fighting for more autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine population in the state, which is also home to around 600,000 members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, who have chosen to remain in the country.

More than a million Rohingya have sought refuge in neighboring Bangladesh after fleeing Rakhine state, including hundreds of thousands in 2017 during a previous military crackdown that is now the subject of a court case for genocide United Nations.

UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell told reporters in Geneva on Friday that tens of thousands of civilians had been displaced in recent days by fighting in Buthidaung townships. and Maungdaw.

“An estimated 45,000 Rohingya are believed to have fled to an area on the Naf River near the border with Bangladesh in search of protection,” she said, while calling for the protection of civilians in accordance with the law. international.

UN rights chief Volker Turk urged Bangladesh and other countries “to provide effective protection to those who request it, in accordance with international law, and to ensure international solidarity with Bangladesh in the reception of Rohingya refugees in Myanmar,” she said.

But Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, said that with more than a million Rohingya already in the country, the government was reluctant to take in more, leaving the remaining refugees stranded in the Burmese side of the border.

“Beheadings”

James Rodehaver, head of the Office for Human Rights team in Myanmar, described the horrific situation that many were fleeing.

He said his team had received testimonies and seen satellite images, videos and photos online indicating that the town of Buthidaung had been “largely burned”.

“We received information that the fires actually started on May 17… two days after the military withdrew from the town… and that the Arakan Army claimed to have taken full control of the village. »

One survivor described seeing dozens of dead bodies as he fled Buthidaung, while another said he was among tens of thousands of people who fled the town only to find themselves blocked by the army. Arakan on the road west towards the town of Maungdaw.

Other survivors also said AA members mistreated them and extorted money from them as they tried to make their way to Rohingya villages south of the city.

In the weeks before the Buthidaung fire, Rodehaver said the human rights office had documented further attacks on Rohingya civilians by the AA and the military in northern Rakhine state , notably through airstrikes.

The team documented “at least four cases of beheadings,” he said, adding that it determined with a high level of confidence that those beheadings were carried out by the AA.

There have also been allegations that the Rohingya are being used as human shields.

Al Jazeera's Chowdhury said the Rohingya were “caught in the middle”.

“They are in a precarious situation,” he said, adding that recent Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar had told him that the AA and the army were trying to recruit them to fight.

“They are threatened: if they do not join the movement, their villages will be burned,” he said.