Myanmar troops burned dozens of Rohingya homes in the days following the signing of a repatriation deal on Nov. 23 that would allow Rohingya refugees to return from Bangladesh to Myanmar, satellite imagery analyzed by Human Rights Watch has revealed.
These homes are a fraction of the 40 Rohingya villages that were fully or partially destroyed in October and November, bringing the total number of destroyed villages since Aug. 25 to 354. This period also saw the flight of thousands more Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh.
According to Human Rights Watch, four villages suffered building destruction between Nov. 25 and Dec. 2, including Myo Mi Chang village in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township, which was burned just two days after the repatriation deal.
“The Burmese army’s destruction of Rohingya villages within days of signing a refugee repatriation agreement with Bangladesh shows that commitments to safe returns were just a public relations stunt,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“The satellite imagery shows what the Burmese army denies: that Rohingya villages continue to be destroyed. Burmese government pledges to ensure the safety of returning Rohingya cannot be taken seriously.”
On Nov. 23, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a China-backed Arrangement on the Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State on behalf of “residents of Rakhine State” who crossed from Myanmar into Bangladesh during the military operations that began on Oct. 9, 2016, and Aug. 25, 2017. In letters to both governments, Human Rights Watch said the agreement should be shelved, noting the lack of involvement by the United Nations and the unrealistic timetable for the safe and voluntary returns starting in January 2018.
Human Rights Watch has used satellite imagery to monitor over 1,000 villages and towns in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Ratheduang townships, where the Myanmar military and local vigilantes have engaged in attacks on Rohingya. The organization found that the damage patterns in the 354 affected villages are consistent with burning occurring in the weeks after the military operations began in late August.
Among the 354 affected villages, at least 118 were either partially or completely destroyed after September 5, when the office of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi announced as end of clearance operations. Among the 40 villages that were destroyed since October, 24 were destroyed in October, 11 in November, and five over both months.
These crimes are the latest in a campaign of widespread killings, rapes, arbitrary arrests, and mass arson in hundreds of predominantly Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine State that have forced more than 655,000 Rohingya to flee the country.
In November, a report by a Myanmar military Investigation Team concluded that there were “no deaths of innocent people” during the military operations in Rakhine State and that at least 376 “terrorists” were killed during fighting, contrary to information reported by the UN, media outlets, and human rights groups. The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Dec. 14 concluded that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the violence, over 700 of whom were children, based on surveys refugees in Bangladesh.
“The UN Security Council and concerned governments shouldn’t continue to stand by as evidence of continuing attacks on the Rohingya community comes to light,” Adams said. “Targeted sanctions need to be imposed now against those responsible for ordering and carrying out crimes against humanity.”
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