BEIJING/COX'S BAZAR
A fresh influx of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar's Arakan region were headed to Bangladesh for refuge after a week of ethnic clashes with Rakhine Buddhists.
Sait Demir, an official from Turkey-based humanitarian aid charity IHH, told The Anadolu Agency that reports arriving from the conflict area had put Rohingya Muslim casualties at around one thousand, adding that many more were waiting for permission to set foot in Bangladesh, "but the Bangladeshi government won't let them in and many of them are stranded in the boats which carried them and they are hungary. The (Bangladeshi) government has failed to take necessary measures."
Turkey's Ambassador to Myanmar Murat Yavuz Ates told the AA on Saturday the number of casualties remained unclear in the clashes from Sunday through Thursday as Myanmar's state-run television had put the death toll at 67 with 95 people were injured and 2,818 houses were burned down.
"We do not know yet how many of them were Muslims or Buddhists. And we do not know how many people have left their homes but the numbers are estimated at thousands. There were clashes in four townships," Ates said.
The Turkish ambassador said he was headed to Arakan to join officials from the Turkish Red Crescent Society to visit refugee camps where Muslims and Buddhists have taken refuge.
Around 75,000 people have been living in camps since last June when ethnic violence in Rakhine killed at least 90 people and left more than 3,000 homeless.
Reporting by Ali Ihsan Cam/Salih Baran
