COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh--Bangladeshi border guards have recovered two dozen bodies from the country's shore in the last two days, as tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims make desperate attempts to flee the worst violence involving the Myanmar minority in at least five years.
At the United Nations, the U.S. ambassador to the world body, Nikki Haley, urged Myanmar's security forces to avoid attacking innocent civilians.
Haley condemned recent attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army but added "as Burmese security forces act to prevent further violence, they have a responsibility to adhere to international humanitarian law, which includes refraining from attacking innocent civilians and humanitarian workers."
She also urged security forces to ensure aid reaches those in need and to ensure the rights of all communities.
Around 27,400 Rohingya Muslims have crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar since Friday, three U.N. sources said, after Rohingya insurgents wielding sticks, knives and crude bombs attacked police posts and an army base in Rakhine state, leading to clashes that killed at least 117 people.
Myanmar said its security forces were carrying out clearance operations in northern Rakhine to defend against "extremist terrorists". Monitors said fleeing Rohingya reported that the army and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist vigilantes have unleashed a campaign of arson aimed at driving out the Muslim population.
Reuters reporters in Bangladesh on Thursday saw a huge fire on the Myanmar side of the Naf River. Many villages were also on fire near the town of Maungdaw in Rakhine, where another Reuters reporter saw charred debris and smoke billowing from the forest.
The U.N. sources in Bangladesh said around 20,000 Rohingya were stranded in no man's land between the two countries. One predicted the figure could jump to 30,000 later on Thursday.
Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said the humanitarian situation was deteriorating rapidly. "Many thousands of people are increasingly at risk of grave violations of their human rights," she said in a statement. "The worsening cycle of violence ... must be broken urgently."
Myanmar has evacuated thousands of Buddhists from Rakhine since the start of the fighting that has mainly killed Rohingya insurgents but also security force personnel, according to the Myanmar government. The treatment of about 1.1 million Rohingya in Myanmar is the biggest challenge facing Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for a minority that has long complained of persecution.
On Thursday, the bodies of 11 Rohingya children and nine women washed up on the Bangladesh side of the Naf after their boat overturned, said Ariful Islam, a Bangladesh border guard commander. The bodies of two Rohingya women and two children were recovered on Wednesday after their boat was fired on by Myanmar's Border Guard Police, Islam said. A Rohingya leader in Bangladesh cited survivors saying both boats were overcrowded.
