October 30, 2016

In Myanmar, Military Action Forces Some to Flee: ‘We Just Had to Run Away to Save Our Lives’

The owner of a small grocery store in western Myanmar, Ko Thu Ya fled his home nearly three weeks ago with his family and has been on the run ever since.

Mr. Thu Ya, 25, is from Maungdaw Township, a coastal town on the Bangladesh border, where military action has left scores of people dead and forced thousands of people from their homes, rights groups have said. Most of the victims, like Mr. Thu Ya, are members of the Rohingya ethnic group.

The Myanmar government has described the action by the army and the border police as a counterinsurgency response to an attack this month on a nearby border post that killed nine police officers.

Rights groups in the region say they have received reports that soldiers and police officers have shot unarmed people, raped women, looted shops and burned homes. Local officials deny those reports. (Courtesy of nytimes.com)

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