Arakan News Agency
Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that the “ethnic cleansing campaign” launched by Myanmar’s army led to the total destruction of 214 Rohingya villages and tens of thousands of homes.
The rights group published photographs which they said were taken last Saturday via satellites of areas devastated by Myanmar’s army and extremist Buddhist militias in Arakan province.
“A total of 214 villages have been completely destroyed in Arakan province of Myanmar,” the statement said.
“The pictures show the destruction of tens of thousands of houses in the towns of Maungdaw and Rathidaung in the province,”they said.
“This is part of the ethnic cleansing campaign led by the Myanmar security forces and has led to the exodus of more than 400,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh” since 25th August.
“The new images also show that more than 90 percent of the buildings in each village have been damaged,” it said.
“The photos support testimonies collected by Human Rights Watch from refugees who spoke about the burning, killing and looting by security forces, police and ethnic militias” in Myanmar.
Last Friday, the rights group said the Myanmar army burned more than 60 villages and destroyed more than 900 homes belonging to the minority Muslim Rohingya in Arakan province.
The government of Myanmar considers “Rohingya” Muslims “illegal immigrants from Bangladesh,” while the United Nations classifies them as “the most persecuted religious minority in the world.”
Since August 25th, the Myanmar army has committed genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan province, killing and injuring thousands of civilians, according to Rohinagya activists.
Since that date, some 421,000 Muslims in the province west of Myanmar have moved to Bangladesh, according to UN data.
