Myanmar bulldozed scores of Rohingya villages: HRW

NEW YORK, Feb 23 (APP):New satellite images of Myanmar’s Rakhine state show that the South-east Asian country’s government had been bulldozing Rohingya Muslim villages that were burned down during the “ethnic cleansing campaign” against the minority community, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday.
HRW said at least 55 villages had been razed to the ground since late 2017, after nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape military and civilian reprisals in the state.
“The authorities want to cover up evidence of the atrocities and take away the land that belongs to the Rohingya. They want to make it difficult to find graves, weapons used or any other evidence that would connect the crime scene to the criminals,” Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director, told said
“It also reflects the ethnic cleansing mentality of the Burmese authority,” he said.
Adams said the “random” satellite images only reflected a partial picture and fears the situation could be far worse.
The Rohingya, a vast majority of whom are Muslims, have been denied citizenship rights. They are viewed by the local authorities as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, although many have been living in the region for decades, if not centuries. Myanmar’s Buddhist majority is accused of subjecting them to discrimination and violence.
The Burmese government has refused to grant visas to the UN Fact-Finding Mission, which was created by the Human Rights Council in March 2106, preventing it from collecting evidence in affected areas of northern Rakhine State. Furthermore, it has effectively blocked all independent media and human rights groups from gaining meaningful access to northern Rakhine State.
“The government’s clearing of dozens of villages only heightens concerns about Rohingya families being able to return home,” Adams said. “Deliberately demolishing villages to destroy evidence of grave crimes is obstruction of justice. Donor governments should ensure they don’t provide any direct or indirect support that would hamper justice or assist those responsible for ethnic cleansing in their efforts to pretend the Rohingya do not have the right to return to their villages in northern Rakhine State.”
Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to repatriate the Rohingya refugees within two years but HRW says “no refugees have returned to Burma, and Rohinyga continue to flee from Rakhine State.”
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told the Security Council on February 13 that “conditions are not yet conducive to the voluntary repatriation of Rohingya refugees” as the causes of their flight had not been addressed.
“Rohingya are not going to return for a long time because they do not trust the Burmese (Myanmar) authorities,” said HRW’s Adams. “If I were a Rohingya, I would not dare return.”