Rohingya children are being 'thrown on to fires', warns Conservative MP demanding international action on crisis

Exclusive: International Development Committee member Pauline Latham MP writes that 'the plight of the Rohingya is like nothing on earth'

A Conservative MP has told of the appalling state of the Rohingya people, who she says have suffered mass murder, rape and seeing their children “literally thrown on to fires”.

Writing for The Independent Pauline Latham warned that tens of thousands more people will die if the international community does not act now over the ever-deepening crisis.

She also hits out at erstwhile democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi for refusing to help and “kowtowing” to Myanmar’s military.

Ms Latham sits on the House of Commons International Development Committee which was last month refused access to Myanmar, raising concerns that the country is trying to censor what is happening.

The MP for Mid Derbyshire describes life for the Rohingya refugees, many who have now fled to Bangladesh, as “heartbreakingly cheap”.

She said: “And even if they survive the monsoons and cyclones, women, whose husbands have already been slaughtered, will be preparing to give birth to children conceived by the rape of the Burmese military.

“The plight of the Rohingya is like nothing on earth.

“They are a people who have been de-humanised – they have seen their children literally thrown on to fires.”

More than 700,000 people have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since August, with those having escaped accusing the military and vigilantes of murder, rape and arson.

The United Nations says the people were escaping a "campaign of terror and forced starvation", but Myanmar's military claims it is fighting militants and denies targeting civilians in Rakhine state.

The plight of the Rohingya is like nothing on earth. They are a people who have been de-humanised – they have seen their children literally thrown on to fires.

Pauline Latham MP

Ms Latham said that Bangladesh as a country does not have the infrastructure to cope with the influx of refugees, demanding quick action to prevent thousands more from dying.

Turning her fire on Ms Suu Kyi, she said: “Aung San Suu Kyi, held up as one of the greatest fighters for democracy in recent decades, would not even allow our committee representatives to visit her country.

“That’s right. The woman who had spoken out so passionately for democracy and humanitarianism in her fight against Myanmar’s military is either kowtowing to them by looking away from the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Rakhine State or has taken a deliberate stance of refusing to help.”

The UK Government has spent £59m since August helping Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.