Burmese Refugee Boat Capsizes Ahead of Storm, 8 Dead (50 more feared dead)

[muriel_volestrangler]

Last edited Tue May 14, 2013, 12:16 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: VOA

The United Nations says at least eight people died after several boats evacuating Rohingya Muslim refugees capsized off western Burma, as tens of thousands scramble to leave low-lying refugee camps ahead of an incoming storm.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says the accident occurred when a group of five boats carrying about 100 people struck rocks near Pauktaw township in Burma's Rakhine state. It said 42 people survived the crash. The fate of the others is unknown.
...
Aid agencies continue to warn of a possible humanitarian disaster that could result from heavy flooding and mudslides late Wednesday or Thursday when Cyclone Mahasen hits the coast of western Burma and Bangladesh.

Most at risk are the tens of thousands of people, mostly Rohingya Muslims, living in squalid refugee camps in flood-prone areas of Rakhine. They were displaced following Buddhist-Muslim violence last year that killed nearly 200 people.

Read more: http://www.voanews.com/content/burmese-refugee-boat-capsizes-ahead-of-storm-/1660507.html

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Religion - the gift that keeps on killing.

Update: UN fears another 50 dead:

Several overcrowded boats carrying more than 100 Rohingya Muslims trying to escape an approaching cyclone capsized off the coast of western Burma, and only 42 were known to have survived, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Eight bodies have been found so far, and more than 50 other people who were aboard are feared dead, said James Munn, an official with the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The Rohingya, a long-suffering minority, had been living in camps in Rakhine state in Burma, also known as Myanmar, after fleeing sectarian violence last year. They crowded into as many as five boats that left Pauktaw township late Monday, said Munn. Reports indicated that one of the boats was towing the others and hit a rock, causing all to capsize overnight.
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Around 140,000 people — mostly Rohingya — are living in flimsy tents and makeshift shelters in the region after two outbreaks of Buddhist-Muslim violence there last year, according to the UN humanitarian affairs office.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/05/14/burma-myanmar-boat-capsize-cyclone.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. If you read the article, or the excerpt I gave,

you find that these refugees are homeless because they are Muslims who have been driven from their homes into camps by anti-Muslim riots, that killed about 200 people. They are thus extremely vulnerable to the cyclone, and the evacuation has been done not by the navy, which has the capacity, or the government, but by volunteers. Because the Muslims still fear attacks orchestrated by some far right Buddhist monks, they are at risk whatever they do.

Asking what religion has to do with a cyclone and evacuating before it is like asking what race has to do with Bush's pathetic response to Katrina, and the violence by some of the New Orleans police.

[uppityperson]

3. Thank you for clarifying.