14 die as Rohingya refugee boat sinks off BD

SHAH PORIR DWIP, Bangladesh: At least 14 Rohingya Muslims, most of them children, drowned and scores more were missing on Monday after their overloaded boat capsized in the latest tragedy to strike those fleeing violence in Myanmar.

Authorities in Bangladesh said the boat was carrying between 60 and 100 people when it overturned and sank in rough seas on Sunday night. The bodies of 11 children, two women and a man were washed up on Shah Porir Dwip island in Bangladesh and border guards pulled 13 survivors from the sea, but the fate of the others remains unknown.

Alif Jukhar, a Rohingya refugee who has long lived in Bangladesh, lost nine relatives in the disaster including his mother and father. "Yesterday I spoke to my parents on the phone and they told me they they would arrive in Shah Porir Dwip tomorrow," he told AFP as he used his bare hands to bury their bodies.

Shortly afterwards, overcome with grief, he collapsed screaming in the middle of the cemetery. More than half a million Rohingya have left Myanmar since militant raids on police posts on August 25 prompted a brutal military backlash against the Muslim minority that the United Nations has said could amount to ethnic cleansing.

Around 150 have drowned trying to make the journey in small and rickety fishing boats that coastguards say are woefully inadequate for the rough seas. Survivor Sayed Hossain wept as he watched the body of his two-year-old son being taken away to the local cemetery for burial.