U.N. worries about more refugees as Myanmar reports 'large numbers' aim to go

[October 06, 2017]  By Stephanie Nebehay and Robert Birsel

GENEVA/YANGON (Reuters) - Muslim Rohingya are still fleeing from Myanmar to Bangladesh and the United Nations is bracing for a possible "further exodus", the U.N. humanitarian aid chief said on Friday.

Some 515,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine in six weeks since the end of August, in what the United Nations has called the world's fastest-developing refugee emergency.

The refugee crisis began after Myanmar security forces responded to Rohingya militant attacks on Aug. 25 by unleashing a brutal crackdown that the United Nations has denounced as ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar insists its forces must fight the "terrorists" who have killed civilians and burnt villages, and it rejects any suggestion of ethnic cleansing.

But rights groups say more than half of more than 400 Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine State have been torched in a campaign by the security forces and Buddhist vigilantes to drive out Muslims.

Mark Lowcock, U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, reiterated an appeal for access to the population in northern Rakhine, saying the situation was "unacceptable".

Myanmar has blocked most access to the area, although some agencies have offices open in towns there and the International Committee of the Red Cross is helping the Myanmar Red Cross to deliver aid.

"This flow out of Myanmar has not stopped yet, it's into the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya (who are) still in Myanmar, we want to be ready in case there is a further exodus," Lowcock told a news briefing in Geneva.

"Half a million people do not pick up sticks and flee their country on a whim."

An estimated 2,000 Rohingya are arriving in Bangladesh every day, Joel Millman of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told a separate briefing.

Myanmar officials have said they attempted to reassure groups trying to flee to Bangladesh but could not stop people who were not citizens from leaving.

The official Myanmar News Agency said "large numbers" of Muslims were preparing to cross the border. It cited their reasons as "livelihood difficulties", health problems and a "belief" of insecurity.

Aid agencies have warned of a malnutrition crisis with about 281,000 people in Bangladesh in urgent need of food, including 145,000 children under five and more than 50,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women.

RISK

Cholera is a risk, amid fears of disease spreading in the rain-drenched camps where aid workers are trying to install sanitation systems, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said.

Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, attends a news conference on his visit to Bangladesh for the Rohingya refugee crisis, at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland October 6, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

About 900,000 doses of cholera vaccines are due to arrive this weekend and a vaccination campaign should start on Tuesday.

U.N.-led aid bodies have appealed for $434 million over six months to help up to 1.2 million people - including 300,000 Rohingya already in Bangladesh before the latest crisis and 300,000 Bangladeshi villagers in so-called host communities.

The Rohingya are regarded as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and most are stateless.

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced criticism for not doing more to stop the violence, although a military-drafted constitution gives her no power over the security forces.

She has condemned rights abuses and said Myanmar was ready to start a process agreed with Bangladesh in 1993 by which anyone verified as a refugee would be accepted back, but there is little hope for speedy repatriation.

Both the United States and Britain have warned Myanmar the crisis is putting at risk the progress it has made since the military began to loosen its grip on power.

China, which built close ties with Myanmar while it was under military rule and Western sanctions, has been supportive.

In Washington, U.S. officials said sanctions and the withholding of aid were among the options available to press Myanmar to halt the violence but they had to be careful to avoid worsening the crisis.

"We don't want to take actions that exacerbate their suffering. There is that risk in this complicated environment," Patrick Murphy, a deputy assistant secretary of state, told a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

Murphy said efforts were underway to identify those responsible for rights violations.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in WASHINGTON)

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