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Myanmar Rohingya crisis: Bangladesh plea over 'untenable' exodus

Rohingya refugees tell the BBC of "house by house" killings

Almost a million Rohingya people have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh, placing the country in an "untenable" position, Bangladesh's envoy to the UN says.

Violence against Rohingya in Rakhine, northern Myanmar (Burma), continues, Shameem Ahsan said. "Thousands still enter on a daily basis," he added.

About 600,000 have crossed the border since August, when militant attacks in Rakhine triggered an army offensive.

Mr Ahsan was speaking at a conference in Geneva to raise funds for victims.

About $340m (£260m) has been pledged so far. The UN is seeking $434m, which it says will help more than a million people for six months.

Aid agencies describe conditions in Bangladeshi camps as appalling. There is a lack of clean water, shelter and food, and many children are traumatised.

"This is an untenable situation," Mr Ahsan told the conference. He said aid was vital until Myanmar agreed to a "safe, dignified, voluntary return of its nationals back to their homes".

The Rohingya - most of whom are Muslims - have had a presence in Myanmar, mostly in Rakhine state, for generations.

The Myanmar government does not regard them as citizens, but as stateless immigrants from Bangladesh.

Reuters A Rohingya refugee boy, who crossed the border from Myanmar this week, takes shelter at Long Beach Primary School, in the Kutupalong refugee camp, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh October 23, 2017.Reuters
A young Rohingya boy at a Bangladesh primary school turned shelter

"This blatant denial of the ethnic identity of Rohingyas remains a stumbling block," Mr Ahsan said.

The UN has called the crisis a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

The latest exodus began on 25 August after Rohingya militants attacked police posts, killing 12 members of the security forces.

Those attacks led to a crackdown by Myanmar troops. The military says it is fighting insurgents but those who have fled say troops and Buddhists are conducting a brutal campaign to drive them out.

Before the latest influx, Bangladesh was home to 300,000 Rohingya who had escaped earlier outbreaks of violence in Rakhine.

The head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, said the two countries had begun talks on repatriation but the necessary conditions did not yet exist for the return of the Rohingya.