PAMuslim villages are being burnt to the ground amid mass killings in the Rohingya crisis.
According to BBC journalists who witnessed the devastation, buildings were set ablaze in Burma’s Rakhine state, including homes and a religious school.
Since violence erupted in August, over 164,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency.
Still smoking. The village of Gawdu Zara, an hour after it was set alight by Rakhine youths. pic.twitter.com/WwzLJTVuPO
— Jonathan Head (@pakhead) September 7, 2017
The BBC has reported the fires had allegedly been lit by a group of Rohingya Buddhists who were spotted leaving the village carrying weapons.
One of these men admitted he’d started the fires with help from the police.
A BBC journalist said:
As we walked in, a group of young, muscular men carrying machetes, swords and sling-shots were walking out. We tried to ask them questions but they refused to be filmed.
However, my Myanmar colleagues did speak to them away from the cameras and they said they were Rakhine Buddhists.
There was was no one else in the village. These men we saw were the perpetrators.
By the time we walked out, all the burned houses were smouldering, blackened ruins.
Just saw a Muslim villages set alight by Rakhine youths wth jugs of petrol and machetes. Huge inferno. S of Maungdaw wth big police presence
— Jonathan Head (@pakhead) September 7, 2017
The government claims it was actually the Muslim inhabitants destroying their own homes although most of these had already fled by this point.
In August Muslim insurgents attacked several police posts and an army base which led to a crackdown, resulting in the deaths of at least 400 people.
UN agencies believe the number of refugees fleeing to Bangladesh could rise to 300,000 in the coming days.
