UN fears further exodus of Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar

The United Nations bracedon Friday for a possible further exodusof Muslim Rohingyarefugees from Myanmar into Bangladesh six weeks after theworld's fastest-developing refugee emergency began.

Around 515,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh fromMyanmar's western state of Rakhine in an unrelenting movement ofpeople that began after Myanmar security forces responded toRohingya militant attacks with a brutal crackdown.

The UNhas denounced the Myanmar militaryoffensive as ethnic cleansing, but Myanmar insists its forces arefighting "terrorists" who have killed civilians and burnedvillages.

Rights groups say more than 200Rohingyavillages in the north of Rakhine state have been torched in acampaign by the security forces and Buddhist vigilantes to driveout Muslims.

UN humanitarian relief chief Mark Lowcock reiterated an appeal for access to the population in northern Rakhine, saying the situation was "unacceptable."

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has blocked most access to thearea, although some agencies have offices open in towns thereand the International Committee of the Red Cross is helping theMyanmar Red Cross to deliver aid.

"This flow of people of Myanmar hasn't stopped yet.Obviously, there's into the hundreds of thousands of Rohingyastill in Myanmar,and we want to be ready in case there is afurther exodus," Lowcock told a news briefing in Geneva.

Lowcock said a senior UNofficial was expected to visitMyanmar in the next few days.

An estimated 2,000 Rohingya are arriving in Bangladesh everyday, said Joel Millman of the International Organization forMigration at a separate briefing.

Myanmar has come under international criticism for failing to stop the violenceand stem the tide ofthe largest refugee crisis to hit Asia in decades. Officials have said they attempted to reassuregroups trying to flee to Bangladesh but could not stop peoplewho were not citizens from leaving.

Myanmardoesn't recognizeRohingyaas an ethnic group, instead insisting they are migrants from Bangladesh living illegally in the country.

Many Rohingyapeople are gathered on the beaches just across the water from Bangladesh waiting for a chance to leave the country.A video obtained by The Associated Press that villagers said was shot Thursday in northern Rakhine state shows dozens of Rohingya attempting to swim across the currents of a muddy river.In the video, many more people, from young children to old men, stand huddled with their belongings on the riverbank.After crossing theriver, migrants must endure amore than 20-kilometre walk through jungles to the border.

The officialstate-run Myanmar News Agency, said on Friday "largenumbers" of Muslims were preparing to cross the border. It citedtheir reasons as "livelihood difficulties,"health problems, a"belief" of insecurity and fear of becoming a minority.

Hunger and disease plague camps

Aid agencies have warned of a malnutrition crisis with about281,000 people in Bangladesh in urgent need of food, including145,000 children under five and more than 50,000 pregnant andbreastfeeding women.

Cholera is a risk, amid fears of disease spreading in therain-drenched camps where aid workers are trying to installsanitation systems, a spokespersonfor the World HealthOrganization said.

About 900,000 doses of cholera vaccine are due to arrivethis weekend and a vaccination campaign should start on Tuesday.

UN-led aid bodies have appealed for $545million Cdnover sixmonths to help up to 1.2 million people including 300,000Rohingya already in Bangladesh before the latest crisis and300,000 Bangladeshi villagers in so-called host communities.

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced criticism for notdoing more to stop the violence, although a military-draftedconstitution gives her no power over the security forces.

She has condemned rights abuses and said Myanmar was readyto start a process agreed upon with Bangladesh in 1993 by whichanyone verified as a refugee would be accepted back.

Lowcock said talks between Myanmar and Bangladesh on arepatriation plan were a useful first step.

"But there is clearly a long way to go," he said.

Both the United States and Britain have warned Myanmar thecrisis is putting at risk the progress it has made since themilitary began to loosen its grip on power.

In Washington, U.S. officials said sanctions and thewithholding of aid were among the options available to pressMyanmar to halt the violence, but they had to be careful to avoidworsening the crisis.

"We don't want to take actions that exacerbate theirsuffering. There is that risk in this complicated environment," Patrick Murphy, a deputy assistant secretary of state, told ahearing of the U.S. House of Representatives foreign affairs committee.

Murphy said efforts were under way to identify thoseresponsible for rights violations.