Persecution of Muslims in Myanmar is countrywide says rights group

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has come under pressure from countries with large Muslim populations including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey to halt violence against Rohingya Muslims.

The systematic persecution of minority Muslims is on the rise across Myanmar and not confined to the northwestern state of Rakhine, where recent violence has sent nearly 125,000 Muslim Rohingya fleeing, a Myanmar rights group said on Tuesday.

The independent Burma Human Rights Network said that persecution was backed by the government, elements among the country's Buddhist monks, and ultra-nationalist civilian groups.

"The transition to democracy has allowed popular prejudices to influence how the new government rules, and has amplified a dangerous narrative that casts Muslims as an alien presence in Buddhist-majority Burma," the group said in a report.

The report draws on more than 350 interviews in more than 46 towns and villages over an eight-month period since March 2016.

Myanmar's government made no immediate response to the report. Authorities deny discrimination and say security forces in Rakhine are fighting a legitimate campaign against "terrorists."

TRT World 's Kerry Alexandra reports.

Fleeing to Bangladesh

Hundreds of exhausted Rohingyas have arrived near the village of Shamlapur near the Myanmar border in the latest influx into Bangladesh. 

The village, facing the Bay of Bengal, appears to have become the newest receiving point for the refugees after authorities cracked down on human traffickers in a different part of the Teknaf peninsula.

Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi was due in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, on Tuesday after meeting Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi and army chief Min Aung Hlaing to urge that Myanmar halt the bloodshed.

"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," Retno said after her meetings in the Myanmar capital.

Erdogan calls on Suu Kyi to protect Rohingya

Turkey’s President Recept Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone on Tuesday with Suu Kyi, emphasising that violence against Rohingya was of deep concern to the Muslim world.

The Turkish president said he would send his foreign minister to neighbouring Bangladesh on Wednesday to discuss the escalation in violence and refugee crisis.

Erdogan has called the persecution of Rohingya Muslims genocide.

Presidential sources said the two leaders discussed ways to address the current crisis and how to provide the local population with humanitarian aid.

Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will travel to Myanmar's neighbour, Bangladesh, on Wednesday. Turkey has offered Bangladesh help with the refugee influx.

Violence condemned

Pakistan, home to a large Rohingya community, has expressed "deep anguish" and urged the world body, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, to act.

Malaysia has summoned Myanmar's ambassador to express displeasure over violence in Rakhine.

Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said the latest incidents of violence showed that the Myanmar government had made "little, if any" progress in finding a peaceful solution to problems facing the Rohingya minority, most of whom live in Myanmar's northwest Rakhine state near the Bangladesh border.

Rescue operations shift from Mediterranean

A rescue ship that has plucked tens of thousands of migrants from the Mediterranean is shifting operations to Southeast Asia to help Rohingya refugees. 

The Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station said this on Tuesday as more and more Rohingya attempt to flee Myanmar.