Satellite data released by Human Rights Watch [12] shows widespread fires burning in at least 10 areas of Burma's Rakhine state, following a new military offensive targeting the country's Rohingya [13] people. Burmese authorities say some 100 have been killed since Aug. 25, when supposed militants of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA [14]) launched pre-dawn raids on police outposts. The army has responded with a massive operation to encircle the Rohingya rebels and block their escape into Bangladesh. But troops are accused of putting whole villages to the torch and carrying out extrajudicial killings. More than 8,700 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh since since the offensive was launched, but at least 4,000 more are stranded in the no man's land between the two countries near Taung Bro village. Temporary shelters now fill a narrow strip between the Naf River and Burma's border fence.
Bangladesh is already host to more than 400,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled Burma since the early 1990s. Bangladesh has called on the UN to pressure Burma over its treatment of the Rohingya, insisting it cannot accept any more.
In a video statement [15] last October, the ARSA demanded international action to protect the Muslim Rohingya people from "genocide" being carried out by the Burmese armed forces and "Buddhist extremists." (Al Jazeera [16], AFP [17], Aug. 30; RFA [18], Reuters [19], UN News Centre [20], Aug. 29; Reuters [21], Mizzima [22], Aug. 26)
