TEKNAF, Bangladesh — Myanmar’s military said Friday that almost 400 people died in recent violence in the western state of Rakhine triggered by attacks on security forces by insurgents from the Rohingya ethnic minority.
Both sides exchanged charges of atrocities, as thousands of Rohingya fled across the border to Bangladesh.
At least 46 people believed to be Rohingya fleeing violence in western Myanmar were found dead on the banks of a river along the boundary with Bangladesh. The dead — 19 children, 18 women, and 9 men — were found at points along the Naf River over the past three days, Bangladeshi officials said Friday.
“We believe they were Rohingyas,’’ said lieutenant Colonel S.M. Ariful Islam, commanding officer of the local border guard battalion. “They died because their boats capsized when they were coming to Bangladesh by boat from Myanmar.’’
Bangladeshi villagers on a beach were covering the bodies with tarpaulins.
The overall death toll of 399, which was posted on the Facebook page of the country’s military commander, is a sharp increase over the previously reported number of just over 100. The statement said all but 29 of the dead were insurgents, whom it described as terrorists.
The statement said there had been 90 armed clashes, including an initial 30 attacks by insurgents on Aug. 25, making the combat more extensive than previously announced.
The army, responding to the Aug. 25 attacks, launched what it called clearance operations against the insurgents.
Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, say security forces and vigilantes attacked and burned Rohingya villages, shooting civilians and causing others to flee.
The government says it is the insurgents who have been burning homes and killing members of the Buddhist ethnic Rakhine community.
Longstanding tension between the Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists erupted in bloody rioting in 2012, forcing more than 100,000 Rohingya into displacement camps.
The insurgent group that claimed responsibility for last week’s attacks, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, said it acted to protect Rohingya communities.
A human rights group, Fortify Rights, said witnesses who escaped have supported accusations by Rohingya advocates that government security personnel and civilian vigilantes ‘‘committed mass killings of Rohingya Muslim men, women, and children.’’
Associated Press
