Reuters :
Along the main road that stretches nearly 40 kilometres north from Maungdaw town in Myanmar’s violence-riven Rakhine State, all but one of the villages that were once home to tens of thousands of people have been turned into smouldering ash.
Hundreds of cows roam through deserted settlements and charred paddy fields. Hungry dogs eat small goats. The remains of local mosques, markets and schools – once bustling with Rohingya Muslims – are silent.
Despite strict controls on access to northern Rakhine, Reuters independently travelled to parts of the most-affected area in early September, the first detailed look by reporters inside the region where the United Nations says Myanmar’s security forces have carried out ethnic cleansing.
Nearly 500 people have been killed and 480,000 Rohingya have fled since Aug 25, when attacks on 30 police posts and a military base by Muslim militants provoked a fierce army crackdown. The government has rejected allegations of arson, rape and arbitrary killings levelled against its security forces.
“We were scared that the army and the police would shoot us if they found us … so we ran away from the village,” said Suyaid Islam, 32, from Yae Khat Chaung Gwa Son, near the area visited by Reuters north of Maungdaw. He was speaking by phone from a refugee camp in Bangladesh after leaving his village soon after the attacks.
Residents of his village told Reuters it had been burned down by security forces in an earlier operation against Rohingya insurgents late last year. Those that did not flee have been surviving since in makeshift shacks, eating food distributed by aid agencies.
Satellite photos showed that tens of thousands of homes in northern Rakhine have been destroyed in 214 villages, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. The UN detected 20 sq km (8 sq miles) of destroyed structures.
The government said more than 6,800 houses have been set on fire. It blames the Rohingya villagers and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which staged the Aug 25 attacks.
“The information we obtained on this side is that terrorists did the burnings,” said Zaw Htay, spokesman for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Reuters reporters have made two trips to northern Rakhine, visiting the townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung, and driving from Maungdaw through the most affected area along the main road north to the town of Kyein Chaung.
A Myanmar army helicopter is seen after transporting journalists to an area were government forces found the bodies of Hindu villagers, whom authorities suspect were killed by insurgents last month, in a mass grave near Maungdaw in the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Sept 27, 2017. Reuters
A Myanmar army helicopter is seen after transporting journalists to an area were government forces found the bodies of Hindu villagers, whom authorities suspect were killed by insurgents last month, in a mass grave near Maungdaw in the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Sept 27, 2017. Reuters
The reporters talked briefly to residents but, because many were scared of being seen speaking to outsiders, most interviews were carried out by phone from outside the army operation area.
Little aid has made it to northern Rakhine since the UN had to suspend operations because of the fighting and after the government suggested its food was sustaining insurgents. Convoys organised by the Red Cross have twice been stopped and searched by hostile ethnic Rakhines in the state capital Sittwe.
In U Shey Kya, where last October Rohingya residents accused the Myanmar army of raping several women, a teacher who spoke to Reuters from the village by phone said only about 100 families out of 800 households have stayed behind.
Those who remain are playing a cat-and-mouse game with the soldiers, who come to the village in the morning prompting the residents to hide in the forest and return at night.
“We don’t even have food to eat for this evening. What can we do?” said the teacher. “We are close to the forest where we have leaves we can eat and find some water to survive.” He refused to give his name because he had been warned by the authorities not to talk to reporters.
The man said escaping through bush in monsoon rain with his elderly parents, six children and pregnant wife was not an option.
Zaw Htay said the government has prioritised humanitarian assistance to the area.
“If there are any locations where aid has not reached yet, people should let us know, we will try to reach them as soon as we can,” he said.
Along the main road that stretches nearly 40 kilometres north from Maungdaw town in Myanmar’s violence-riven Rakhine State, all but one of the villages that were once home to tens of thousands of people have been turned into smouldering ash.
Hundreds of cows roam through deserted settlements and charred paddy fields. Hungry dogs eat small goats. The remains of local mosques, markets and schools – once bustling with Rohingya Muslims – are silent.
Despite strict controls on access to northern Rakhine, Reuters independently travelled to parts of the most-affected area in early September, the first detailed look by reporters inside the region where the United Nations says Myanmar’s security forces have carried out ethnic cleansing.
Nearly 500 people have been killed and 480,000 Rohingya have fled since Aug 25, when attacks on 30 police posts and a military base by Muslim militants provoked a fierce army crackdown. The government has rejected allegations of arson, rape and arbitrary killings levelled against its security forces.
“We were scared that the army and the police would shoot us if they found us … so we ran away from the village,” said Suyaid Islam, 32, from Yae Khat Chaung Gwa Son, near the area visited by Reuters north of Maungdaw. He was speaking by phone from a refugee camp in Bangladesh after leaving his village soon after the attacks.
Residents of his village told Reuters it had been burned down by security forces in an earlier operation against Rohingya insurgents late last year. Those that did not flee have been surviving since in makeshift shacks, eating food distributed by aid agencies.
Satellite photos showed that tens of thousands of homes in northern Rakhine have been destroyed in 214 villages, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. The UN detected 20 sq km (8 sq miles) of destroyed structures.
The government said more than 6,800 houses have been set on fire. It blames the Rohingya villagers and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which staged the Aug 25 attacks.
“The information we obtained on this side is that terrorists did the burnings,” said Zaw Htay, spokesman for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Reuters reporters have made two trips to northern Rakhine, visiting the townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung, and driving from Maungdaw through the most affected area along the main road north to the town of Kyein Chaung.
A Myanmar army helicopter is seen after transporting journalists to an area were government forces found the bodies of Hindu villagers, whom authorities suspect were killed by insurgents last month, in a mass grave near Maungdaw in the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Sept 27, 2017. Reuters
A Myanmar army helicopter is seen after transporting journalists to an area were government forces found the bodies of Hindu villagers, whom authorities suspect were killed by insurgents last month, in a mass grave near Maungdaw in the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Sept 27, 2017. Reuters
The reporters talked briefly to residents but, because many were scared of being seen speaking to outsiders, most interviews were carried out by phone from outside the army operation area.
Little aid has made it to northern Rakhine since the UN had to suspend operations because of the fighting and after the government suggested its food was sustaining insurgents. Convoys organised by the Red Cross have twice been stopped and searched by hostile ethnic Rakhines in the state capital Sittwe.
In U Shey Kya, where last October Rohingya residents accused the Myanmar army of raping several women, a teacher who spoke to Reuters from the village by phone said only about 100 families out of 800 households have stayed behind.
Those who remain are playing a cat-and-mouse game with the soldiers, who come to the village in the morning prompting the residents to hide in the forest and return at night.
“We don’t even have food to eat for this evening. What can we do?” said the teacher. “We are close to the forest where we have leaves we can eat and find some water to survive.” He refused to give his name because he had been warned by the authorities not to talk to reporters.
The man said escaping through bush in monsoon rain with his elderly parents, six children and pregnant wife was not an option.
Zaw Htay said the government has prioritised humanitarian assistance to the area.
“If there are any locations where aid has not reached yet, people should let us know, we will try to reach them as soon as we can,” he said.
