The Myanmar government blames Rohingya insurgents for the violence, including the arson. Government figures put the death toll since last week at a minimum of 103, including 12 members of security forces, 77 persons described as insurgents and 14 civilians.

Rohingya advocates fear hundreds of civilians may have been killed in army raids.

A report issued Wednesday by Myanmar's Information Ministry said that 45 improvised explosive devices were detonated and seven villages, one security post and two neighborhoods in the township of Maungdaw burned down on Sunday and Monday.


Maungdaw, in the northern part of Rakhine state, is a center for the violence, though villages over a much wider area were also hit.

A majority of Myanmar's estimated 1 million Rohingya live in northern Rakhine, where they have faced persecution in the Buddhist-majority country that refuses to recognize them as a legitimate native ethnic minority, leaving them without citizenship and basic rights.

Sahany said the Rohingya crisis was not an issue between Myanmar and Bangladesh but of international concern.