Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Myanmar's Rohingya have been described by the UN as "the most friendless people in the world, as Justin Rowlatt reports

Rohingya Muslim insurgents in Myanmar have declared a one-month unilateral ceasefire to ease the humanitarian crisis in northern Rakhine state.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) said the truce would start on Sunday, urging Mynamar's army to lay down weapons as well.

Arsa attacks on police on 25 August led to a ferocious military response.

About 290,000 Rohingya are said to have fled Rakhine and sought shelter over the border in Bangladesh since then.

The UN says that aid groups urgently need $77m (£58m) to help Rohingya who have fled Myanmar.

There is a desperate need for food, water and health services for new arrivals in Cox's Bazaar, the UN added.

Rohingya residents - a stateless, mostly Muslim minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar - say the military and Rakhine Buddhists are waging a brutal campaign against them, burning their villages.

Myanmar rejects this, saying its military is fighting against Rohingya "terrorists".

Arsa announced its ceasefire in a statement on Saturday.

It also asked humanitarian organisations to resume their work.

Myanmar so far has made no public comments on the insurgents' initiative.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Rohingya accuse the military of burning their villages - but Myanmar says its soldiers are fighting against "terrorists"

Aid agencies in Cox's Bazaar say they are overwhelmed by the numbers fleeing, while reporters at the scene have described seeing thousands of Rohingya waiting at roadsides, begging and chasing food trucks.

An AP reporter saw one man collapsing from hunger while queuing at a food distribution point.

The UN Resident Co-ordinator in Bangladesh, Robert Watkins, said: "There is now an urgent need for 60,000 new shelters, as well as food, clean water and health services, including specialist mental health services and support for survivors of sexual violence."

Those who have fled Rakhine describe village burnings, beatings and killings at the hands of the security forces and Buddhist youths.

The Myanmar government says it is the Rohingya militants and the Muslim villagers themselves who are burning their own homes and attacking non-Muslims - many of whom have also fled the violence.

But a BBC reporter in Rakhine state on Thursday saw a Muslim village being burned, apparently by a group of Rakhine Buddhists, contradicting the official version of events.

Also on Saturday, rights group Amnesty International accused Myanmar's military of planting landmines at the border with Bangladesh.

Bangladeshi border guards and villagers have told the BBC that they witnessed more than 100 Myanmar soldiers walking by and apparently planting landmines at the border.

Bangladeshi officials have said they believe Myanmar government forces are planting the landmines to stop the Rohingya returning to their villages.

A Myanmar military source said no landmines had been planted recently, while a government spokesman told Reuters more information was needed.

The Rohingya plight is sparking concern and protests in many nations, and Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticised for failing to protect them.

Various world leaders have urged Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who spent years under house arrest for her pro-democracy activism, to speak out on behalf of the Rohingya.</s>Rohingya insurgents have declared a month-long ceasefire from Sunday to allow relief groups to distribute aid in the restive Rakhine state, Reuters reported. In its statement, the insurgents identified as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army urged the nation’s military to lower their offensive and allow humanitarian groups to provide aid to the affected people.

Almost 3 lakh Rohingya Muslims have fled the violence in Rakhine to Bangladesh and 30,000 non-Muslim civilians have been displaced after the military launched a counter-offensive following attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army insurgents on 30 police posts and an army base on August 25.

“ARSA strongly encourages all concerned humanitarian actors resume their humanitarian assistance to all victims of the humanitarian crisis, irrespective of ethnic or religious background during the ceasefire period,” a statement said.

The Rohingya have been denied citizenship in Myanmar and are classified as illegal immigrants, despite them claiming roots that go back centuries. The community has been subjected to violence by the Buddhist majority and the Army in Myanmar. The country’s de-facto leader and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticised for failing to stand up for more than 1 million stateless Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine.</s>Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh - Rohingya militants in Myanmar, whose raids sparked an army crackdown that has seen nearly 300 000 Muslim Rohingya flee to Bangladesh, on Sunday declared a unilateral ceasefire but the government declared it would not negotiate with "terrorists".

The United Nations said 294 000 bedraggled and exhausted Rohingya refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since the militants' attacks on Myanmar security forces in neighbouring Rakhine state on August 25 sparked a major military backlash.

Tens of thousands more are believed to be on the move inside Rakhine after more than a fortnight without shelter, food and water.

"The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations," the group said in a statement on its Twitter account.

It urged "all humanitarian actors" to resume aid delivery to "all victims of humanitarian crisis irrespective of ethnic or religious background" during the one-month ceasefire until October 9.

In addition to Rohingya, some 27 000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists as well as Hindus have also fled violence in the northern part of Rakhine state.

ARSA called on Myanmar to "reciprocate this humanitarian pause" in fighting.

Myanmar, which has previously labelled ARSA as "terrorists", appeared to reject the overture.

"We have no policy to negotiate with terrorists," Zaw Htay, a senior government spokesman, tweeted late Sunday.

Aung San Suu Kyi's government has come in for strong international criticism over the military's treatment of the Rohingya - including the alleged laying of mines along the border to prevent those who fled from returning.

Three Rohingya are reported to have been killed by a mine and others including children have been injured.

Mainly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognise its stateless Muslim Rohingya community, labelling them "Bengalis" - illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Rohingya refugees say the army operations against ARSA led to mass killing of civilians and the burning of hundreds of villages, sending them across the border.

International aid programmes in Rakhine have been severely curtailed, as the fighting tore through parts of the state.

India's foreign ministry called for an immediate end to the violence, urging the situation "be handled with restraint and maturity".

Thousands are arriving in Bangladesh each day, joining already overcrowded camps of Rohingya who have fled Myanmar over decades of troubles. The UN refugee agency UNHCR gave the latest figure of 294 000 for the new arrivals.

The UN has appealed for urgent donations of $77 million.

Bangladesh already hosts around 400 000 Rohingya from previous crises.

The Red Cross in Bangladesh welcomed the ceasefire pledge as aid agencies struggle to meet the needs of an "overwhelming crisis", battling monsoon rains to deliver relief to people who have fled with few belongings.

"How can you handle such a big influx of people? They want shelter, they want a safe place," Misada Saif, Prevention and Communication Coordinator of the ICRC Bangladesh delegation, told AFP.

Cradling her naked screaming infant, Rohingya refugee Zohra Begum was close to tears as several hundred people were ordered to leave a strip of forest alongside the beach near Shamlapur, where families were clearing land with hoes to build shelters.

"We went to all the camps but there was no place to stay. That's why we came here," she told AFP. "If we have to move from here, where will we go? We will die."

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh say ethnic Rakhine Buddhists joined Myanmar's security forces in the indiscriminate killing of villagers.

But ethnic Rakhine villagers accuse militants of murdering civilians while the government says fleeing Rohingya set fire to their own homes to forment fear and anger against the authorities.

At the makeshift camp near Shamlapur, Rohingya refugees doubted a ceasefire would allow their return any time soon.

"They (Myanmar army) are saying 'go away or we'll burn all of you'. How can we believe a ceasefire will have any effect?" Hafez Ahmed, 60, told AFP.

But Hashem Ullah, a 33-year-old farmer from a village west of Maungdaw, said he would return "if I got compensation, and they accept us as Rohingya".

How can we live like this here?" he added, gesturing to the swampy earth.

ARSA says it is fighting to defend the Rohingya from persecution in Myanmar.

The army says it has killed nearly 400 militants so far, while some Rohingya refugees have complained they were forced to fight by ARSA.

The first ARSA attacks in October last year were less ambitious, but the subsequent military response by a security force notorious for its scorched-earth response to insurgency sent 90 000 Rohingya fleeing across the border.

That means over a third of the estimated 1.1 million Rohingya in Rakhine state have fled in less than a year.</s>MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a group of extremist Muslim insurgents, has declared a unilateral ceasefire in Myanmar for a month starting Sunday, the group said in a statement.

"The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung Townships for a one-month period (10 September 2017 — 09 October 2017) in order to enable humanitarian actors to assess and respond to the humanitarian crisis in Arakan State," the statement read.

"ARSA strongly encourages all concerned humanitarian actors resume their humanitarian assistance to all victims of the humanitarian crisis, irrespective of ethnic or religious background during the ceasefire period," the statement added.

In recent weeks, the tensions between the Rohingyas living in Myanmar and the local Buddhist majority have escalated after Muslim insurgents attacked security posts in the country’s northern Rakhine state, formerly named Arakan, and Myanmar launched a military operation against the insurgents. Nearly 400 people were killed.

The crisis has made dozens of thousands of Rohingyas leave Myanmar following the escalation. According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the number of refugees that have arrived in Bangladesh is estimated at about 146,000.</s>related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

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YANGON: The Myanmar government said on Sunday (Sep 10) that it has "no policy" to negotiate with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for a ceasefire to the conflict in Rakhine state. 



Earlier on Sunday, ARSA declared an immediate unilateral one-month ceasefire in the conflict, which has seen nearly 300,000 of the Muslim minority flee to Bangladesh.

"The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations," it said in a statement on its Twitter handle @ARSA_Official, adding it was to allow for humanitarian aid to reach the battered region.

The group called for "all humanitarian actors" to resume aid delivery to "all victims of humanitarian crisis irrespective of ethnic or religious background" during the ceasefire period which runs until Oct 9.

It asked Myanmar to "reciprocate this humanitarian pause" in fighting.

In a tweet on Sunday afternoon, deputy director general of Myanmar's President's Office Zaw Htay said: "We have no policy to negotiate with terrorists."



Bedraggled and exhausted Rohingya refugees have arrived in huge numbers in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar area for over two weeks, while tens of thousands more are believed to be on the move inside Rakhine, many in desperate conditions after more than a fortnight without shelter, food and water.

A further 27,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists as well as Hindus have also been displaced by violence that has unfurled across the northern part of the state.

Rohingya refugees allege "clearance operations" by the army in its offensives against the ARSA resulted in mass killings and the burning of hundreds of villages, sending them across the border. International aid programmes in Rakhine have been severely curtailed, as the fighting engulfed parts of the state.

On Saturday the UN said a total of 290,000 had crossed into Bangladesh after days-long treks or by boat, joining already overcrowded camps of Rohingya who have fled Myanmar over decades of troubles.

The UN has appealed for urgent donations of US$77 million to provide for the influx of Rohingya which has put a "massive strain" on existing camps.

Bangladesh already hosts around 400,000 Rohingya from previous crises.

The World Food Programme is doling out rice sacks to hungry families as desperate new arrivals, many with no belongings, food or water, crowd relief teams trying to manage the huge influx of people.

Better known locally as Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement), ARSA launched coordinated raids using hundreds of militants on Aug 25 on around 30 police posts and state offices in northern Rakhine state.

The kickback by security forces prompted the Rohingya exodus.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh say ethnic Rakhine Buddhists joined security forces in the indiscriminate killing of villagers.

In an area split by claim and counterclaim, ethnic Rakhine villagers accuse militants of murdering their civilians while the government says fleeing Rohingya set fire to their own homes to forment fear and anti-state anger.

ARSA's Twitter page is often the first to publish statements or direct readers to videos.

Sunday's statement was signed by Ata Ullah, who purportedly commands the militants from jungle bases straddling the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

ARSA appears to have significantly grown in the last year despite remaining hopelessly outgunned against one of Asia's largest militaries.

According to statements and photos released by Myanmar's army, the militants use primitive weapons, including gunpowder rifles, homemade guns and bombs as well as clubs and swords.

Myanmar's army says it has killed nearly 400 militants so far, while some Rohingya refugees have complained they were forced to fight by ARSA.

The first ARSA attacks in October last year were less ambitious, but the subsequent military response by a security force notorious for its scorched earth response to insurgency sent 90,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border.

That means over a third of the estimated 1.1 million Rohingya in Rakhine state have fled in less than a year.

Myanmar does not want its Rohingya population. The government does not recognise them among its official ethnic minority groups and they are instead pejoratively labelled 'Bengalis' - illegal immigrants from Bangaldesh.

The treatment of the Rohingya has overshadowed Myanmar's emergence from military rule, with de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi singled out for her failure to use her moral weight in defence of the minority.</s>YANGON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Rohingya insurgents declared a month-long unilateral ceasefire, starting on Sunday, to enable aid groups to help ease a humanitarian crisis in northwest Myanmar.

Nearly 300,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh and 30,000 non-Muslim civilians have been displaced inside Myanmar after the military launched a counter-offensive following attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents on 30 police posts and an army base on Aug. 25.

"ARSA strongly encourages all concerned humanitarian actors resume their humanitarian assistance to all victims of the humanitarian crisis, irrespective of ethnic or religious background during the ceasefire period," ARSA said in a statement. (Reporting by Andrew R.C. Marshall, Writing by Antoni Slodkowski, Editing by Angus MacSwan)</s>Rohingya militants, who sparked an army crackdown in Myanmar that has seen nearly 300,000 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh, Sunday declared a unilateral ceasefire to allow aid to reach the increasingly desperate fugitives. The United Nations said 294,000 bedraggled and exhausted Rohingya refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since the militants’ attacks on Myanmar security forces in Rakhine state on August 25 sparked a major military backlash.

Tens of thousands more are believed to be on the move inside Rakhine after more than a fortnight without shelter, food and water. Three Rohingya are reported to have been killed by a mine near the border allegedly laid by Myanmar security forces to stop the fugitives returning.

Mainly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognise its stateless Muslim Rohingya community, labelling them as “Bengalis” –illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. A further 27,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists as well as Hindus have also fled violence that has gripped the northern part of the state.

“The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations,” the group said in a statement on its official Twitter account. It urged “all humanitarian actors” to resume aid delivery to “all victims of humanitarian crisis irrespective of ethnic or religious background” during the one-month ceasefire period until October 9.

ARSA called on Myanmar to “reciprocate this humanitarian pause” in fighting. There was no immediate response from Myanmar’s military, but yesterday authorities said they would set up three relief camps in Rohingya-majority areas.

Rohingya refugees say army operations against ARSA led to mass killings and the burning of hundreds of villages, sending them across the border. International aid programmes in Rakhine have been severely curtailed, as the fighting tore through parts of the state.

India’s foreign ministry called for an immediate end to the violence, urging the situation “be handled with restraint and maturity”. Thousands are arriving in Bangladesh each day, joining already overcrowded camps of Rohingya who have fled Myanmar over decades of troubles. The UN refugee agency UNHCR gave the latest figure of 294,000 for the new arrivals.

The UN has appealed for urgent donations of $77 million. Bangladesh already hosts around 400,000 Rohingya from previous crises.

The Red Cross in Bangladesh welcomed the ceasefire pledge as aid agencies struggle to meet the needs of an “overwhelming crisis”, battling monsoon rains to deliver relief to people who have fled with few belongings. “How can you handle such a big influx of people? They want shelter, they want a safe place,” Misada Saif, Prevention and Communication Coordinator of the ICRC Bangladesh delegation, told AFP.

Cradling her naked screaming infant, Rohingya refugee Zohra Begum was close to tears as several hundred people were ordered to leave a strip of forest alongside the beach near Shamlapur, where families were clearing land with hoes to build shelters. “We went to all the camps but there was no place to stay. That’s why we came here,” she told AFP. “If we have to move from here, where will we go? We will die.”

Better-known locally as Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement), ARSA launched coordinated raids using hundreds of militants on August 25 on around 30 police posts and state offices in the north of Rakhine state. The backlash by security forces prompted the Rohingya exodus.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh say ethnic Rakhine Buddhists joined security forces in the indiscriminate killing of villagers. In an area split by claim and counterclaim, Rakhine villagers accuse militants of murdering their civilians while the government says fleeing Rohingya set fire to their own homes to forment fear and anager against the authorities.

At the makeshift camp near Shamlapur, Rohingya refugees doubted a ceasefire would allow their return any time soon. “They (Myanmar army) are saying ‘go away or we’ll burn all of you’. How can we believe a ceasefire will have any effect?” Hafez Ahmed, 60, told AFP.

But Hashem Ullah, a 33-year-old farmer from a village west of Maungdaw, said he would return “if I got compensation, and they accept us as Rohingya”. How can we live like this here?” he added, gesturing to the swampy earth.

ARSA says it is fighting to defend the Rohingya from persecution in Myanmar. But Myanmar labels them “extremist Bengali terrorists” intent on carving out an Islamic enclave for the Rohingya. The army says it has killed nearly 400 militants so far, while some Rohingya refugees have complained they were forced to fight by ARSA.

The first ARSA attacks in October last year were less ambitious, but the subsequent military response by a security force notorious for its scorched earth response to insurgency sent 90,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border. That means over a third of the estimated 1.1 million Rohingya in Rakhine state have fled in less than a year.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>Rohingya Muslims: Ethnic Cleansing of the World’s Most Persecuted Minority -By Labaran Yusuf

Attacked with impunity, stripped of the vote and driven from their homes, the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority of about 1.3 million in the predominantly Buddhist Myanmar (formerly Burma), are considered as the most persecuted minority in the world.

The Rohingya, according to many historians and Rohingya groups, probably arrived in what was then the independent kingdom of Arakan (now Rakhine) as long ago as the 8th century. They were seafarers and traders from the middle-east and were joined in the 17th century by tens of thousands of Bengali Muslims captured by the raiding Arakanese. “Rohingya” simply means “inhabitant of Rohang”, the early Muslim name for Arakan. The kingdom of Arakan was later conquered by the Burmese army in 1785.

With the British conquest of Arakan in 1825, Arakan and Burma were administered as part of British India. Thousands of labourers from Bangladesh and India migrated to what is now known as Myanmar, and such migration was considered as internal, according to the Human Rights Watch (HRW). However, this migration of labourers was viewed negatively by the majority of the native population.

After gaining independence from Britain in 1948, the Burmese government refused to recognise the Rohingya as Burmese citizens. The government viewed the migration that took place during the British rule as “illegal”, and this led many Buddhists to consider the Rohingya offensively as “Bengali”, a recent invention created for political reasons. After the military coup in 1962, things only worsened for the Rohingya, coupled with the fact that they were only given foreign identity cards, which limited the jobs and educational opportunities they could pursue and obtain.

The new citizenship law passed in 1982 effectively rendered the Rohingya stateless, and the government did not recognise them as one of the 135 ethnic groups in the country. As a result of the law, their rights of the Rohingya to study, work, travel, marry, practice their religion and access health services were restricted under successive Burmese military dictators, till date.

Confined to the western coastal state of Arakan (Rakhine), bordering the Bay of Bengal to the west, Bangladesh to the northwest, Burma’s Chin state to the north, and Magwe, Bago, and Irrawaddy Divisions to the east, the Rohingya live in Nazi-like ghetto camps lacking in basic services and opportunities. Arakan is one of the poorest states in Myanmar, and the Burmese government denies them freedom of movement without a government permit.

For almost half a century, the Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar in droves to escape persecution, with many fleeing to the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian nations often being reported as becoming victims of gang rapes, torture, arson, infanticide, extrajudicial killings and murder by Myanmar security forces. The UN has described the mass exoduses of the Rohingya as “ethnic cleansing”. The crackdowns on them by the security forces in 2012, 2015 and late 2016 were among the most horrifying, with thousands of women, children and the elderly being killed and hundreds of thousands crossing over to Bangladesh, in journeys in which many of the lucky ones drowned in the tortuous passage.

Several international organisations have lashed out at the Myanmar leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who came to power in a historic 2015 election, for denying and defending the army’s crimes against humanity. She has been accused of being complicit in and inciting violence against the Rohingya – who she herself terms as “Bengalis”. Ms Suu kyi, as many have described, is just another war criminal with a Noble Peace award, like others in the mould of Henry Kissinger, Theodore Roosevelt, Shimon Peres, among others, who have been conferred with the prestigious award for political reasons.

The recent crackdown of the past weeks, sparked by attacks on border posts, army bases and police posts in Rakhine state by the newly formed Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), formerly known as the Faith Movement, made up of Rohingya villagers armed with homemade weapons who have declared they are obligated to “defend, salvage and protect the Rohingya community”, have led to more persecution of the Rohingya. Over the past few days, more than 290,000 people have crossed into Bangladesh, according to the United Nations and over 1,000 people have been killed in the ensuing violence.

Bangladesh, which hosts many Rohingya refugees, also refuses to recognise them as citizens. The country has often tried to prevent Rohingya refugees from crossing its border and had planned, in the past, to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees to a remote island that is prone to flooding (it completely floods during the annual monsoon season), which has also been called “unhabitable” by rights groups.

“The Rohingya are probably the most friendless people in the world. They just have no one advocating for them at all,” Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in 2009.

The international community has to intervene to stop an impending Southeast Asian Srebrenica massacre (the annihilation of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims who were meant to be under UN protection), which is still a dark stain on Europe’s human rights record. The Burmese government has to immediately stop its crackdowns in Rakhine and allow UN observers to access and monitor the situation on the ground. Bangladesh has to do more for the refugees escaping violence and persecution. As for the West, the coverage of a humanitarian crisis shouldn’t be with a one-sided passion; the Rohingya crisis has to be addressed equally like other humanitarian crisis, such as that of the Yazidis in Iraq.</s>related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

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COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Rohingya militants in Myanmar, whose raids sparked an army crackdown that has seen nearly 300,000 Muslim Rohingya flee to Bangladesh, on Sunday (Sep 10) declared a unilateral ceasefire but the government said it would not negotiate with "terrorists".

The United Nations said 294,000 bedraggled and exhausted Rohingya refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since the militants' attacks on Myanmar security forces in neighbouring Rakhine state on Aug 25 triggered a major military backlash.

Bangladesh's foreign minister said Sunday that "genocide" was being waged in Rakhine state. Tens of thousands of Rohingya are believed to be on the move inside Rakhine after more than a fortnight without shelter, food and water.

"The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations," the militant group said in a statement on its Twitter account.

It urged "all humanitarian actors" to resume aid delivery to "all victims of humanitarian crisis irrespective of ethnic or religious background" during the one-month ceasefire until Oct 9.

International aid programmes in Rakhine have been severely curtailed over safety concerns due to the fighting. In addition to Rohingya, some 27,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Hindus have also fled violence in northern Rakhine.

ARSA called on Myanmar to "reciprocate this humanitarian pause" in fighting.

Myanmar, which has previously labelled ARSA as "terrorists", appeared to reject the overture. "We have no policy to negotiate with terrorists," Zaw Htay, a senior government spokesman, tweeted late Sunday.

Aung San Suu Kyi's government has come in for strong international criticism over the military's treatment of the Rohingya - including the alleged laying of mines along the border to prevent those who fled from returning.



Three Rohingya are reported to have been killed by a mine and others including children have been injured.

Rohingya refugees say army operations against ARSA led to mass killing of civilians and the burning of villages, sending them across the border.

Mainly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognise its stateless Muslim Rohingya community, labelling them "Bengalis".

Bangladesh foreign minister A H Mahmood Ali acccused Myanmar of running a "malicious propaganda" campaign to term the Rohingya as "illegal migrants from Bangladesh" and the militants as "Bengali terrorists".

"Should all people be killed? Should all villages be burnt? It is not acceptable," he told reporters after briefing diplomats in Dhaka Sunday. "The international community is saying it is a genocide. We also say it is a genocide," he said.

Members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) gathered in Kazakhstan's capital Astana Sunday expressed "serious concern about recent systematic brutal acts committed by the armed forces" in Myanmar, calling for international monitors to be accepted into the country.

India's foreign ministry called for an immediate end to the violence, urging the situation "be handled with restraint and maturity".

Thousands are arriving in Bangladesh each day, joining overcrowded camps of Rohingya who have fled Myanmar over decades of troubles.

The UN has appealed for urgent donations of US$77 million.

Bangladesh already hosts around 400,000 Rohingya from previous crises.

The Red Cross in Bangladesh welcomed the ceasefire pledge as aid agencies struggle to meet the needs of an "overwhelming crisis".

"How can you handle such a big influx of people? They want shelter, they want a safe place," Misada Saif, Prevention and Communication Coordinator of the ICRC Bangladesh delegation, told AFP.

Cradling her naked screaming infant, Rohingya refugee Zohra Begum was close to tears as several hundred people were ordered to leave a strip of forest alongside the beach near Shamlapur, where families were clearing land with hoes to build shelters.

"We went to all the camps but there was no place to stay. That's why we came here," she told AFP. "If we have to move from here, where will we go? We will die."

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh say ethnic Rakhine Buddhists joined Myanmar's security forces in the indiscriminate killing of villagers.

But ethnic Rakhine villagers accuse militants of murdering civilians while the government says fleeing Rohingya set fire to their own homes to foment anger against the authorities.

At the makeshift camp near Shamlapur, Rohingya refugees doubted a ceasefire would allow their return.

"They (Myanmar army) are saying 'go away or we'll burn all of you'. How can we believe a ceasefire will have any effect?" Hafez Ahmed, 60, told AFP.

But Hashem Ullah, a 33-year-old farmer from a village west of Maungdaw, said he would return "if I got compensation, and they accept us as Rohingya".

"How can we live like this here?" he added, gesturing to the swampy earth.

ARSA says it is fighting to defend the Rohingya from persecution in Myanmar.

The army says it has killed nearly 400 militants, while some Rohingya refugees say they were forced to fight by ARSA.

The first ARSA attacks in October last year were less ambitious, but the subsequent military response by a security force notorious for its scorched-earth response sent 90,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border.

That means over a third of the estimated 1.1 million Rohingya in Rakhine state have fled in less than a year.</s>Myanmar has brushed off a one-month unilateral ceasefire announced by a Rohingya militant group in Rakhine.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) announced a truce on Sunday, urging Myanmar's army to lay down weapons as well.

But government spokesman Zaw Htay said Myanmar would not negotiate with "terrorists".

About 294,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted in Rakhine state last month.

Arsa attacked several police posts on 25 August, killing 12 people. In turn, this prompted a counter-insurgency clampdown from the security forces.

Rohingya residents - a stateless, mostly Muslim minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar - say the military and Rakhine Buddhists are waging a brutal campaign against them, burning their villages.

Myanmar rejects this, saying its military is fighting against Rohingya "terrorists".
• Tales of horror from Rohingya who fled

Arsa announced the ceasefire on Twitter, saying it was "in order to enable humanitarian actors to assess and respond to the humanitarian crisis" in Rakhine.

The group "strongly urges the Burmese [Myanmar] government to reciprocate this humanitarian pause", the statement added.

However, Zaw Htay, a spokesman for the government, tweeted on Sunday: "We have no policy to negotiate with terrorists."
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army declares a unilateral ceasefire to allow humanitarian groups to facilitate aid for Rohingya refugees.