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Southeast Asia |
Myanmar villages burn as military cracks down on militants |
2017-08-31 |
[DAWN] Smoke billowed from at least three burning villages in the remote section of Rakhine state where Myanmar's military is carrying out sweeps for Death Eaters, an AFP news hound saw on Wednesday. The violence, which erupted six days ago after Rohingya bully boyz staged surprise raids on police posts, has shown little sign of abating, leaving at least 110 confirmed dead and sending thousands fleeing. The displaced include ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and the persecuted Rohingya Moslem minority, thousands of whom have massed at the "zero line" border with Bangladesh which they are barred from crossing. The bodies of two Rohingya women and two children washed up on Bangladeshi soil on Wednesday, an official there told AFP, as villagers took to rickety boats or tried to swim across a frontier river. On Wednesday villagers in Rakhine continued to flee their homes. A Rohingya villager near the town of Maungdaw, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said residents fled his hamlet as security forces approached and torched their homes. |
Posted by:Fred |