Whole villages destroyed as satellite spots devastation from above
The number of people killed in the violence since August 25 in Myanmar has crossed 1,000, according to UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, Prof. Yanghee Lee.
Rohingya children and women are being massacred, burnt alive and are fleeing their homes as reports of renewed persecution against Rohingya Muslims living in the Rakhine State of Myanmar dominates international and local media.
Children have reportedly been beheaded and other villagers burned alive as thousands attempt to flee the “genocide” of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Some 90,000 refugees, mostly Rohingya, have poured into neighbouring Bangladesh since the latest round of fighting broke out nine days ago when Rohingya militants attacked security installations.
A satellite map has also unearthed the charred remains of entire communities as terrified residents claim they are the targets of a new-world genocide.
“Some people were beheaded, and many were cut. We were in the house hiding when [armed residents from a neighbouring village] were beheading people. When we saw that, we just ran out the back of the house,” said Sultan Ahmed, a 27-year-old man from the former Chut Pyin village in Myanmar.
More than 2600 villages were burned down throughout the state. It is becoming one of the “deadliest bouts of violence involving the Muslim minority in decades”, according to Reuters.
Satellite imagery obtained by Human Rights Watch has revealed 700 buildings from the Rohingya Muslim village of Chein Khar Li have been destroyed by fire.
Rohingya people have lived for centuries in the western state of Rakhine, in Myanmar, but for decades have been persecuted by the Myanmar government. They are not considered among the country’s 135 official ethnic groups. The country has even denied them citizenship since 1982 and the state is one of the poorest in the country.
