Human Rights Watch has used satellite images of devastated Rohingya towns to accuse the Burmese military of burning down villages and sanctioning killings and rapes against the ethnic minority group.
The advocacy group has released the images showing 288 villages partially or completely destroyed by fire in the northern Rakhine state since August 25, 2017.
“These latest satellite images show why over half a million Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in just four weeks,” Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said in a statement.
Building fires and smoke plumes in at least six villages along the coast in Maungdaw Township on the morning of 15 September 2017 . Source: Human Rights Watch
“The Burmese military destroyed hundreds of Rohingya villages while committing killings, rapes, and other crimes against humanity that forced Rohingya to flee for their lives.”
The group monitored 866 villages and found that one village was 90 per cent destroyed.
It claims segregated communities were strategically targeted, and those known to be Rohingya areas were burnt to the ground while known Rakhine areas were left intact.
Human Rights Watch said the UN Security Council should impose a global arms embargo on Burma as well as imposing travel bans and asset sanctions on senior Burmese officials responsible for rights abuses.
“The shocking images of destruction in Burma and burgeoning refugee camps in Bangladesh are two sides of the same coin of human misery being inflicted on the Rohingya,” Mr Robertson added.
