UN says 164,000 refugees enter Bangladesh from Myanmar

More than 160,000 Rohingya refugees have now crossed into Bangladesh in the last fortnight to escape fighting between militants and Myanmar's military, the United Nations stated on Sept. 7.  
   
The latest estimate by U.N. workers operating there put arrivals in just 13 days at 164,000, up from 146,000 from the day before.

The numbers mean that more than a quarter of a million Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since fighting first broke out last October, plunging neighboring Bangladesh into the middle of a major humanitarian catastrophe.

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Sept. 7 her government was doing its best to protect everyone in the strife-torn state of Rakhine, but did not refer specifically to the exodus of the minority Rohingya, which was sparked by a military crackdown following a series of deadly raids by Rohingya militants on Aug. 25, but said her administration was trying its best to take care of all citizens.

Western critics have accused Suu Kyi of not speaking out for the Rohingya, some 1.1 million people who have long complained of persecution and are seen by many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. 

Some have called for the Nobel Peace Prize she won in 1991 as a champion of democracy to be revoked.
"We have to take care of our citizens, we have to take care of everybody who is in our country, whether or not they are our citizens," Suu Kyi said in comments to Reuters Television's Indian partner, Asian News International.

"Of course, our resources are not as complete and adequate as we would like them to be but, still, we try our best and we want to make sure that everyone is entitled to the protection of the law," she said during a visit by Indian Prime...