214 Villages Almost
Totally Destroyed in Rakhine State
 |
Destruction in Rakhine State since August 25, 2017.
© 2017 Human Rights Watch |
September 19, 2017
(New York) – New
analysis of satellite imagery from Burma’s Rakhine State shows the near total
destruction of 214 villages, Human Rights Watch said today. World leaders
meeting at the United Nations should urgently adopt a General Assembly
resolution condemning the Burmese military’s ethnic cleansing, while the UN
Security Council should impose targeted sanctions and an arms embargo.
“These images
provide shocking evidence of massive destruction in an apparent attempt by
Burmese security forces to prevent the Rohingya from returning to their
villages,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“World leaders meeting at the UN should act to end this mounting crisis and
show Burma’s military leaders they will pay a price for such atrocities.”
New maps of the
damage show near-total destruction of the 214 villages seen in satellite
imagery analyzed by Human Rights Watch, with more than 90 percent of the
structures in each village damaged. The images corroborate accounts gathered by
Human Right Watch from refugees who have described arson, killing, and looting
by the Burmese military, police, and ethnic Rakhine mobs.
The Burmese military
has rejected credible accounts of widespread abuses and said it is conducting
operations against the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a militant group
that attacked about 30 police posts and an army base on August 25, 2017,
killing about a dozen members of the security forces. The Burmese military
alleges that ARSA militants and Rohingya villagers have burned down their own
homes but has provided no evidence to substantiate this claim. The scale,
scope, and timing of the burnings, many of which occurred after hundreds of
thousands of Rohingya had already fled, are inconsistent with this claim.
Burmese army
commander Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing recently linked Rohingya demands to be
recognized as an ethnic group under Burmese law with the army’s actions. Using
“Bengali,” a Burmese ethnic slur for Rohingya, he stated in a Facebook post
that, “They have demanded recognition as Rohingya, which has never been an
ethnic group in Myanmar. [The] Bengali issue is a national cause and we need to
be united in establishing the truth.”
On September 15, the
Burmese Government Information Committee stated that, “Those who fled the
villages made their way to the other country for fear of being arrested as they
got involved in the violent attacks” – implying that the hundreds of thousands
of men, women, and children who fled to Burma were responsible for militant
attacks against the government.
Ethnic Rohingya
Muslims fleeing Burmese security forces in Burma’s Rakhine State have described
killings, shelling, and arson in their villages that have all the hallmarks of
a campaign of “ethnic cleansing." https://youtu.be/2eVldS15oU0
Although “ethnic
cleansing” is not formally defined under international law, a UN Commission of
Experts has described ethnic cleansing as a “purposeful policy designed by one
ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the
civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain
geographic areas… This purpose appears to be the occupation of territory to the
exclusion of the purged group or groups.”
On September 19,
Burma’s Foreign Minister, Aung San Suu Kyi, is scheduled to deliver a speech on
the state of the nation, including the situation in Rakhine State.
“While Aung San Suu
Kyi may not have the power or authority to rein in the Burmese military, she
can speak out and also ensure the UN Fact-Finding Mission is able to enter
Burma,” Robertson said. “Concerned governments should not wait for her to act.
They should impose targeted sanctions on those most responsible for the
terrible atrocities taking place.”
Read
more: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/19/burma-satellite-imagery-shows-mass-destruction