Fresh arson attacks trigger renewed influx of Rohingyas

The Myanmar army has again set fire to houses at Mogdu to intensify the exodus of the Rohingyas from the Rakhaine State. The flow of the Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh has gained pace as Myanmar army and Buddhist monks have renewed their assault on their Muslim minority, sources said.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Cox's Bazar told the Daily Observer on Saturday that at least 1,200 Rohingyas are entering Bangladesh every day when  some 700 people had crossed the border everyday in the past. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of others are waiting along the Myanmar border to cross into Bangladesh.
More than 10,000 Muslim Rohingyas have massed in Myanmar near a crossing point into Bangladesh, apparently poised to join an exodus across the border due to food shortages and fear of attacks in their mainly Buddhist homeland.
The Myanmar army arrested many male villagers from the town and those who were picked up were still traceless.
Over 530,000 Rohingya have streamed into Bangladesh in just past six weeks, and their numbers are again swelling, raising doubts about the practicality of a Myanmar proposal to begin repatriating them.
Myanmar's northern state of Rakhine has been emptied of half of its Rohingya population in weeks. More are on the move as insecurity presses them to leave those villages, which have so far been spared the worst of the violence that ripped through the State.
Attacks by Rohingya militants on August 25 spurred a ferocious Myanmar army crackdown that the UN says amounted to "ethnic cleansing".
Authorities have tried to reassure fleeing Rohingyas that they are now safe in Rakhine, the report added, but they want to leave "of their own accord".
Violence appears to have ebbed in northern Rakhine, although independent reporting is still blocked by an army lockdown.
But fear has unsettled many of the Rohingyas who have stayed and are now trapped between Myanmar's army and their hostile ethnic Rakhine neighbours and cut off from aid agencies.
Myanmar denies citizenship to most Rohingya citizenship and the public in the predominantly Buddhist nation does not want them back. The Myanmar nationals have carefully shaped perceptions of the Rohingya, branding them illegal immigrants intent on imposing Islam via the country's western gateway.
The refugees are also deeply fearful of what awaits back in Myanmar, with many recounting stories of rape and mass murder at the hands of the army while their villages have been destroyed.
Teknaf-2 Border Guard Bangladesh BGB commander Lt Col SM Ariful Islam told this correspondent on Saturday that Rohingyas from Myanmar tried to enter Bangladesh at Shah Porir Dip in Teknaf on Friday. BGB sized several boats belonging to traffickers.