Rights group says site of massacre in Rakhine
state is being flattened on government orders after exposés of two other mass
graves
WARNING: this report includes a graphic image
that readers may find disturbing
By Emanuel Stoakes
 |
|
The
site, in Maung Nu, nothern Rakine state, was the location of a massacre that
rights group
report took place in August last year. Photograph: Arakan Project
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The government of Myanmar is bulldozing over
the site of a Rohingya mass grave in an effort to destroy evidence of a
massacre committed last year by the military, according to a rights monitoring
group.
The claim follows investigations conducted by
the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies, which revealed evidence of
other mass graves.
The Arakan Project, which uses on-the-ground
networks to document abuses against the Rohingya community in western Rakhine
state, Myanmar, provided the Guardian with a video of the grave site before its
destruction. The footage shows half-buried tarpaulin bags in a forest clearing,
with a decaying leg visibly protruding from one of the bags.
Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project,
said the bulldozing appears to be part of an effort to hide evidence of the
grave permanently following the exposés that appeared in the press.
“Two of the mass graves sites we know about
have appeared in the media, but on Thursday one of the other mass grave sites
was bulldozed. This means that evidence of the killings is being destroyed,”
she said.
“Private companies are doing the bulldozing.
They come from central Myanmar, not Rakhine,” she said. “It’s clear this is
happening under the orders of government.”
The reported site of the mass grave, in Maung
Nu, Buthidaung township, in northern Rakhine state, was the location of a
massacre that rights groups report took place in August last year. Human Rights
Watch said survivors had told them the army had “beaten, sexually assaulted,
stabbed, and shot villagers who had gathered for safety in a residential compound”
in the village. Dozens were said to have been killed. Satellite imagery
obtained by Human Rights Watch showed that Maung Nu had been razed in the
aftermath.
The Rohingya are a largely stateless Muslim
minority primarily located in Rakhine. Rights organisations say they have
suffered decades of systematic persecution and three “ethnic cleansing”
campaigns since 2012, a charge the government denies. The group are not
recognised by the government as a native minority of Myanmar and are often
referred to as “Bengalis” in official discourse, a term implying that they are
foreigners.
Thousands of Rohingya are estimated to have
been killed during a military crackdown which began in August 2017, following
an attack on security outposts by an insurgent group known as the Arakan
Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa). Nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled to nearby
Bangladesh during the violence.
Last week, Yanghee Lee, the UN special
rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, said the crisis had the “hallmarks of
genocide”.
The government of Myanmar has denied claims
that the military conducted ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya. An army
investigation into its own conduct during the 2017 crackdown exonerated itself
of any blame. However, in a surprise move last month, the military admitted
that Rohingya found in a mass grave at the village of Inn Din had been killed
by its soldiers.
A UN fact-finding mission has been denied
access to Myanmar while the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights has been
barred from entering the country.
“We’ve heard about the allegations of the
destruction at Maung Nu and we’re concerned that this could be part of broader
efforts to conceal the atrocities committed by Burmese security forces,” Phil
Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director, told the Guardian.
Other parts of Rakhine state appear to have
been bulldozed, according to an AFP report last week, which contained aerial
photography showing former Rohingya villages completely flattened. The
bulldozing appeared to target villages that had been razed during the military
crackdown last year, the report said.
“The bulldozers are destroying not just parts
of some villages that were burned but also parts where houses were abandoned
but still intact,” Lewa observed.
When asked about the reported bulldozing of
Rohingya villages, government spokesman Zaw Htay objected to use of the word
Rohingya, saying: “No Rohingya – Bengali, please.”
He followed this by saying, “Local government
is clearing that area. No villagers there. No housing. Only plain land.”
“We have to construct new villages there,” he
said, for the “resettlement” of returning Rohingya.
When asked about reports of the destruction
of the mass grave, he said: “I want to know what evidence you are talking
about? Was it Arsa terrorist group? Bengali people around the world?
“Please give me the reliable, concrete,
strong primary evidence, please – not based on the talking story of Bengali
people around the world, Bengali lobbyists,” he added.