Myanmar army forces Rohingya villagers from homes

YANGON: Hundreds of Myanmar´s Rohingya villagers are facing a second night hiding in rice fields without shelter, after the army on Sunday forcibly removed them from a village in a crackdown following attacks on border security forces.

Four Rohingya sources contacted by Reuters by telephone, said border guard officers went to Kyee Kan Pyin village on Sunday and ordered about 2,000 villagers to abandon it, giving them just enough time to collect basic household items.

The move marks an escalation in violence which has destabilised Myanmar´s most volatile state located in the remote northwest.

In Rakhine, relations between the Rohingya and majority Buddhists have hit their lowest point since hundreds of people were killed and thousands displaced in ethnic and religious violence in 2012. The government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has said the army and police in Rakhine are fighting a group of at least 400 insurgents, drawn from the Rohingya Muslim minority, with links to Islamist militants overseas.

While officials say the army has been conducting carefully targeted sweeps against the group behind attacks on police border posts on Oct.

9, residents have accused security forces of killing non-combatants and burning homes.

"I was kicked out from my house yesterday afternoon, now I live in a paddy field outside of my village with some 200 people including my family - I became homeless," said a Rohingya man from Kyee Kan Pyin village contacted by Reuters by telephone.