U.N.: More than 123K Muslim Rohingya flee Myanmar to Bangladesh

Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Over 123,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed from Myanmar to Bangladesh in the past two weeks to flee government violence, the United Nations said Tuesday.

A crackdown on the stateless ethnic minority began Aug. 25 after Rohingya militants attacked police posts.

Those fleeing the country have said Myanmar troops and Rakhine Buddhist mobs are burning villages and killing civilians.

At least 23,000 Rohingya arrived in Bangladesh in the past 24 hours and the need for food and medical supplies have surged, the U.N. High Commission for Refugees said Tuesday.

The refugees arrived hungry, weak and sick, and entered camps in southeastern Bangladesh, the United Nations said -- adding that an unknown number could be stranded at the border.

The situation has sparked concern in Muslim nations. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi commented, "The security authorities need to immediately stop all forms of violence there and provide humanitarian assistance and development aid for the short and long term."

The governments of Pakistan and Malaysia have also been outspoken about the treatment of Rohingya in Myanmar, and the Maldives has suspended trade with Myanmar. Protests were seen in Russia's Chechnya and in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Turkey called on Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Prize laureate and Myanmar's defacto leader, to intervene in the humanitarian issue. She has not commented, but faces a powerful military and a Myanmar population largely hostile to the Rohingya.