The Amnesty International has claimed that the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar is continuing as the security forces' devastating campaign against the Rohingya population in northern Rakhine State is far from over, reports bdnews24.com.
The international rights group on Wednesday claimed it published "new evidence of ongoing violations that have forced hundreds more people to flee in recent weeks."
In late January 2018, the organisation interviewed 19 newly-arrived Rohingya men and women in Bangladesh, who described how forced starvation, abductions and looting of property drove them to flee.
The AI said in a media release that ?humanitarian agencies documented thousands of new arrivals during December and January while many more were still streaming across the border.
"Shielded by official denials and lies, and a concerted effort to deny access to independent investigators, Myanmar's military continues to get away with crimes against humanity," said Matthew Wells, Senior Crisis Advisor at Amnesty International, who has just returned from the organisation's latest research trip to Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
"Myanmar's security forces are building on entrenched patterns of abuse to silently squeeze out of the country as many of the remaining Rohingya as possible. Without more effective international action, this ethnic cleansing campaign will continue its disastrous march," he added.?
The ongoing oppression appeared to be designed to make northern Rakhine State unliveable for the tens of thousands of Rohingyas still there.
Myanmar military's relentless campaign of violence has driven more than 688,000 Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh since August last year.
On Aug 25, 2017, Myanmar's army launched a military operation against the Rohingya civilian population across northern Rakhine State, after the armed group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), attacked around 30 security force outposts.
AI said crimes against humanity committed by the military include the widespread killing of women, men, and children; rape and other forms of sexual violence against women and girls; mass deportation; and the systematic burning of villages.
Recent arrivals to Bangladesh had stayed in Myanmar throughout all of this, in a bid to protect their property and safeguard their right to live in their villages.
The new arrivals told Amnesty International that the military's persistent persecution finally broke their resolve, forcing them to join the exodus to Bangladesh, the release said.
"Almost all of them blamed the Myanmar authorities' forced starvation of remaining Rohingya communities for creating acute food insecurity, and eventually driving them to flee.
"Many new Rohingya arrivals said the breaking point came when the military denied access to their rice fields at harvest time, in November and December. ?
"Myanmar security forces have also participated in, or facilitated, the theft of Rohingya livestock and have burned several local markets and denied access to others. All of this has devastated Rohingya livelihoods and caused food shortages.
"The Myanmar authorities have further worsened the food insecurity by severely restricting humanitarian assistance to northern Rakhine State," AI said.?
Dildar Begum, 30, arrived in Bangladesh in early January 2018 after leaving Ka Kyet Bet Kan Pyin village, near Buthidaung town.
She told Amnesty International that her family was put in a dire financial situation when the authorities came to their house and extorted considerable money, threatening to arrest her husband if they did not pay.
Then, the military stopped them and other Rohingya villagers from harvesting their rice fields. "We weren't able to get food, that's why we fled," she said.
Amnesty International also documented three recent incidents of the Myanmar military abducting girls or young women.
In early January, soldiers forced their way into a house in Hpoe Khaung Chaung village, Buthidaung Township.
As the soldiers searched the house, Hasina, 25, said they demanded at gunpoint that her uncle hand over her 15-year-old cousin, Samida.
The family has not seen the girl again. The same is true of the other abducted girls and young women, making them victims of enforced disappearance.
Rohingya families from villages where the military recently abducted women and girls said they fled in fear that the abductions would continue, the AI media release added.
The Amnesty said, given the pervasive sexual violence that has marked this and previous military campaigns against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine State, the abduction of women and young girls raises serious concerns of rape and sexual slavery.
Fleeing Rohingya typically have to walk for days before reaching the coast to cross to Bangladesh by boat.
Myanmar security forces have set up checkpoints along these paths where they often deal a final blow: the systematic theft of money and other valuables from each person who passes through.
More than a dozen Rohingya new arrivals described the worst such checkpoint as being near Sein Hnyin Pyar village tract, where many Rohingya cross the mountains that divide Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships. They consistently described a barbed-wire fence having been erected across a creek path there.