Rohingya refugees watch their houses burn across the border in Myanmar. Journalists saw new fires burning in a Myanmar village abandoned by Rohingya Muslims and pages ripped from Islamic texts left on the ground, intensifying doubts about government claims that members of the persecuted minority have been destroying their own homes. About two dozen journalists saw the fires in Gawdu Zara village in northern Rakhine state on a government-controlled trip.
About 300,000 Rohingya from the area have fled across the border into Bangladesh in less than two weeks since Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked police outposts in Gawdu Zara and several other villages, the UN refugee agency said Thursday. The military has said nearly 400 people, mostly Rohingya, have died in clashes and that troops were conducting "clearance operations." It blames insurgents for setting the villages on fire, without offering proof. Rohingya who have fled Myanmar, also known as Burma, have described large-scale violence perpetrated by Myanmar troops and Buddhist mobs — setting fire to their homes, spraying bullets indiscriminately, stabbing civilians and ordering them to abandon their homes or be killed.
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