Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar top 100,000.

Byline: Robin McDowell

YANGON, Myanmar -- A growing sense of desperation is fueling a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from western Myanmar, with the number who have fled by boat since communal violence broke out two years ago now topping 100,000, a leading expert said Saturday.

Chris Lewa, director of the nonprofit advocacy group Arakan Project, said there has been a huge surge since Oct. 15, with an average of 900 people per day piling into cargo ships parked off Rakhine state.

That's nearly 10,000 in less than two weeks, she noted, one of the biggest spikes yet.

Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 50 million that only recently emerged from half a century of military rule, has an estimated 1.3 million Rohingya.

Though many of their families arrived from neighboring Bangladesh generations ago, almost all have been denied citizenship.

In the last two years, attacks by Buddhist mobs have left hundreds dead and 140,000 trapped in camps, where they live without access to adequate health care, education or jobs.

Lewa, who has teams monitoring embarkation points, is considered the leading authority on the number of fleeing Rohingya.

But boats are now shoving off from more and more places, she said, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of how many are leaving.

''The real number may be higher,'' Lewa said.

She said some Rohingya families have received phone calls notifying them that ships from the latest exodus have started arriving in neighboring Thailand, where passengers often are brought to jungle camps, facing extortion and beatings until relatives come up with enough money to win their release.

From there they usually travel to Malaysia or other countries, but, still stateless, their futures remain bleak.

In Myanmar, the vast majority live in the northern tip of Rakhine state, where an aggressive campaign by authorities in recent months to register family members and officially categorize them as ''Bengalis'' -- implying they are illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh -- has aggravated their situation.

According to villagers contacted by The Associated Press, some were...