Skip to main content

Burma: Satellite Imagery Shows Mass Destruction

214 Villages Almost Totally Destroyed in Rakhine State
Destruction in Rakhine State since August 25, 2017.
Expand
Destruction in Rakhine State since August 25, 2017.
 © 2017 Human Rights Watch
(New York) – New analysis of satellite imagery from Burma’s Rakhine State shows the near total destruction of 214 villages, Human Rights Watch said today. World leaders meeting at the United Nations should urgently adopt a General Assembly resolution condemning the Burmese military’s ethnic cleansing, while the UN Security Council should impose targeted sanctions and an arms embargo.
The detailed satellite images, made possible due to a clearing of monsoon cloud on September 16, 2017, reveal destruction from burning much greater than previously known. They show the destruction of tens of thousands of homes across Maungdaw and Rathedaung Townships, part of the Burmese security forces’ campaign of ethnic cleansing that has forced over 400,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.
May 23,2017
September 16,2017
JuxtaposeJS
Satellite imagery recorded before and after the destruction of Myar Zin village. Satellite imagery © 2017 DigitalGlobe
Before: Satellite imagery © 2017 DigitalGlobe After: Satellite imagery © 2017 DigitalGlobe
May 25,2017
September 16,2017
JuxtaposeJS
Satellite imagery recorded before and after the destruction of Nwar Yon Taung village. Satellite imagery © 2017 DigitalGlobe
Before: Satellite imagery © 2017 DigitalGlobe After: Satellite imagery © 2017 DigitalGlobe
May 23,2017
September 16,2017
JuxtaposeJS
Satellite imagery recorded before and after the destruction of Yae Twin Kyun village. Satellite imagery © 2017 DigitalGlobe
Before: Satellite imagery © 2017 DigitalGlobe After: Satellite imagery © 2017 DigitalGlobe
 
“These images provide shocking evidence of massive destruction in an apparent attempt by Burmese security forces to prevent the Rohingya from returning to their villages,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “World leaders meeting at the UN should act to end this mounting crisis and show Burma’s military leaders they will pay a price for such atrocities.”
New maps of the damage show near-total destruction of the 214 villages seen in satellite imagery analyzed by Human Rights Watch, with more than 90 percent of the structures in each village damaged. The images corroborate accounts gathered by Human Right Watch from refugees who have described arson, killing, and looting by the Burmese military, police, and ethnic Rakhine mobs.

The  Burmese military has rejected credible accounts of widespread abuses and said it is conducting operations against the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a militant group that attacked about 30 police posts and an army base on August 25, 2017, killing about a dozen members of the security forces. The Burmese military alleges that ARSA militants and Rohingya villagers have burned down their own homes but has provided no evidence to substantiate this claim. The scale, scope, and timing of the burnings, many of which occurred after hundreds of thousands of Rohingya had already fled, is inconsistent with this claim.
Burmese army commander Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing recently linked Rohingya demands to be recognized as an ethnic group under Burmese law with the army’s actions. Using “Bengali,” a Burmese ethnic slur for Rohingya, he stated in a Facebook post that, “They have demanded recognition as Rohingya, which has never been an ethnic group in Myanmar. [The] Bengali issue is a national cause and we need to be united in establishing the truth.”
On September 15, the Burmese Government Information Committee stated that, “Those who fled the villages made their way to the other country for fear of being arrested as they got involved in the violent attacks” – implying that the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who fled to Burma were responsible for militant attacks against the government.
Although “ethnic cleansing” is not formally defined under international law, a UN Commission of Experts has described ethnic cleansing as a “purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas… This purpose appears to be the occupation of territory to the exclusion of the purged group or groups.”
On September 19, Burma’s Foreign Minister, Aung San Suu Kyi, is scheduled to deliver a speech on the state of the nation, including the situation in Rakhine State.
“While Aung San Suu Kyi may not have the power or authority to rein in the Burmese military, she can speak out and also ensure the UN Fact-Finding Mission is able to enter Burma,” Robertson said. “Concerned governments should not wait for her to act. They should impose targeted sanctions on those most responsible for the terrible atrocities taking place.”
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

George Soros at the Davos Forum

Dear Friends and Colleagues,   I thought you would be interested in reading George's remarks he delivered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this evening.   Best regards, Michael Vachon   George Soros Remarks delivered at the World Economic Forum Davos, Switzerland January 25, 2018 The current moment in history Good evening. It has become something of an annual Davos tradition for me to give an overview of the current state of the world. I was planning half an hour for my remarks and half an hour for questions, but my speech has turned out to be closer to an hour. I attribute this to the severity of the problems confronting us. After I’ve finished, I’ll open it up for your comments and questions. So prepare yourselves. *** I find the current moment in history rather painful. Open societies are in crisis, and various forms of dictatorships and mafia states, exemplified by Putin’s Russia, are on the rise. In the United States, President Trump would
Read more

Defining the Biden Doctrine

  In his first major foreign-policy speech as U.S. president, Joe Biden declared to the world that America was back. The international sigh of relief was almost audible amid hopes that former President Donald Trump’s disruptive style was a relic. Biden has pursued an ambitious agenda to repair alliances and forge new ones, curb corruption, arrest democratic backsliding, and tackle climate change, all while managing the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, Russian threats to Ukraine, and escalating tensions with China.  It hasn’t all been plain sailing. The decision to withdraw remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan precipitated the collapse of the country’s government and chaos in Kabul as hundreds of thousands of people fled the Taliban. Plans to share nuclear submarine technology with Australia, at the expense of Canberra’s submarine deal with Paris, soured trans-Atlantic relations.  Ahead of the anniversary of Biden’s inauguration,  Foreign Policy ’s Amy Mackinnon spoke with one of t
Read more