Rohingya refugees narrate ethnic cleansing carried out by Myanmar

Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh have spoken to reporters to describe the horrors they experienced in jail in Myanmar. Some were detained along with family members and spent more than a year in jail.

Elderly Rohingya refugees recounted the horrors of their arrests and the 18 months of incarceration in myanmar before being released and making their way to camps in Bangladesh.

It was not clear what the refugees were arrested for in their hometown in Maungdaw.

Oli Ahmed, 95-year-old resident of Maungdaw, said that "The military entered our village on 11th November (2016) and they started firing. They gathered all of us and had us lying down on the ground, and told us not to move."

Ninety-five-year-old Oli Ahmed said that he was detained along with family members and spent one-and-a-half years in jail in terrible conditions.

Oli Ahmed also said that "The whole night, they tortured us and beat us severely. There was no food nor water. The next morning they took me to Maungdaw (area). I did not know where the others are."

Another resident of Maungdaw, Rashid Ahmed said that they were initially detained without food and water before being placed in jail for over a year.

63-year-old resident added that "On 17th (November 2016) they arrested me, they covered my eyes and bound my hands with handcuffs. Then they took me to Ywet Ngo Taung (border guard police check post) where they kept us overnight with no food or water, and we have to lie down on the sandy ground."

According to the U.N., nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh after the ethnic cleansing started last August.