The Burmese
military summarily executed several dozen Rohingya Muslims in Maung
Nu village in Burma’s Rakhine State on August 27, 2017, Human
Rights Watch said today. Witnesses said that Burmese soldiers had
beaten, sexually assaulted, stabbed, and shot villagers who had
gathered for safety in a residential compound, two days after
Rohingya militants attacked a local security outpost and military
base.
Human Rights
Watch has not been able to verify estimates of the number of
villagers killed. Satellite imagery analyzed by Human Rights Watch
shows the near total destruction of the villages of Maung Nu (known
locally as Monu Para) and nearby Hpaung Taw Pyin (known locally as
Pondu Para). The damage signatures are consistent with fire.
“All
the horrors of the Burmese army’s crimes against humanity against
the Rohingya are evident in the mass killings in Maung Nu village,”
said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“These atrocities demand more than words from concerned
governments; they need concrete responses with consequences.”
On September
28, the United Nations Security Council met to discuss Burma publicly
for the first time in eight years, but took no action. Human Rights
Watch repeated its call for the council and concerned countries to
adopt an arms embargo and individual sanctions, including travel bans
and asset freezes, against Burmese military commanders implicated in
abuses.
Human Rights
Watch spoke with 14 survivors and witnesses from Maung Nu and
surrounding villages in the Chin Tha Mar village tract of Buthidaung
Township. The witnesses, now refugees in Bangladesh, said that after
the militant attacks they feared Burmese military retaliation.
Several hundred gathered in a large residential compound in Maung Nu.
Several Burmese soldiers entered the compound while others surrounded
it. They took several dozen Rohingya men and boys into the courtyard
and then shot or stabbed them to death. Others were killed as they
tried to flee. The soldiers then loaded the bodies – some witnesses
said a hundred or more – into military trucks and took them away.
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