Arakan News Agency
Thousands of Rohingya Muslims in the violence-plagued northwest of Myanmar are appealing to the authorities to allow them to pass safely from two remote villages separated from the outside world by hostile Buddhists and food shortages.
“We are terrified,” Maung Maung, a Rohingya official in the village of Ah Nok Pien, told Reuters by telephone. We will die of hunger soon and they threaten to burn our homes. “
Another Rohingya, contacted by Reuters and asked not to be identified, said two Buddhists from Arakan state came to the same village and shouted, “Leave or we will kill you all.”
The fragile relations between the villagers and their neighbors in Arakan broke down on August 25th when attacks by Rohingya gunmen caused a violent backlash by the security forces.
Since then, at least 430,000 Muslims have fled to neighboring Bangladesh to avoid what the United Nations has described as “a typical example of ethnic cleansing”.
One million Rohingyas lived in Arakan State until the recent violence. Most face severe travel restrictions and many Buddhists consider them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
