Fleeing Myanmar: UN seeks ‘massive’ help for Rohingyas

Ethnic cleansing’ unites Suu Kyi’s party, army and public; India calls Rohingyas threat to security

DHAKA/YANGON/NEW DELHI: The United Nations on Thursday appealed for massive help for nearly 400,000 Muslims from Myanmar who fled to Bangladesh, with concern growing that the number could keep rising, unless Myanmar ends what critics denounce as "ethnic cleansing".

The Rohingyas are fleeing from a Myanmar military offensive in the western state of Rakhine that was triggered by a series of guerrilla attacks on August 25 on security posts and an army camp in which about a dozen people were killed. The United Nations has called for a massive intensification of relief operations to help the refugees, and a much bigger response from the international community.



"We urge the international community to step up humanitarian support and come up with help," Mohammed Abdiker, director of operations and emergencies for the International Organisation for Migration, told a news conference in the Bangladeshi capital. The need was "massive", he added.

The violence in Rakhine and the exodus of refugees is the most pressing problem Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has faced since becoming national leader last year.

Smoke was rising from at least five places on the Myanmar side of the border on Thursday, a Reuters reporter in Bangladesh said. It was not clear what was burning or who set the fires.

Ethnic cleansing unites

If there's one thing that unites Suu Kyi's party, the army that once tried to crush her, and the majority of people in mostly Buddhist Myanmar, it is their vehement dislike of the Rohingya Muslims, seen as a threat to national security.



"We don't love the military, but we are together on this one," said Nyan Win, a top official of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), who the country's former junta had detained for nearly three years. "Our sovereignty can't be violated and that is why we are united."

"These people are illegal immigrants … that is for sure. But the international community never mentions that," said Win, 75, who chairs the ruling NLD’s media team and is one of the most influential members of the party.

Threat to India’s security

The Indian government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that Rohingya refugees were "a threat to national security", pushing back against condemnation of its plans to deport them.

India's top court is hearing a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government's decision to deport Rohingya Muslims, filed by two Rohingyas living in Delhi who fled their village in Myanmar's western Rakhine State about six years ago.

Close to 40,000 Rohingya Muslims live in India after fleeing Myanmar over the past decade. Nearly 15,000 have received refugee documentation, according to the UN, but India wants to deport them all.



Some groups allied to Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party have stepped up calls for Rohingyas to leave, and Modi said last week that India shared Myanmar's concerns about "extremist violence" in Rakhine state.

On Thursday, a senior lawyer representing India's government told the Supreme Court that "the state considers that Rohingyas are a threat to national security." Intelligence agencies suspect that Rohingya Muslim leaders in India are in touch with Pakistan-based militant groups, the lawyer said. The lawyer declined to be named because an affidavit the home ministry is preparing to file with the court has not yet been finalised.

India's Supreme Court is expected to start hearing the case on Monday. India this week sent 53 tonnes of relief materials to Bangladesh for Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar. Reuters