Interactive graphic shows number of burned Rohingya villages

In the four months since the Myanmar military began a crackdown after Rohingya militants attacked an army base and police posts on August 25, around 655,000 members of the stateless Muslim minority have fled the western state of Rakhine and crossed into neighbouring Bangladesh.

A Reuters graphic makes use of data from the UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) to show hundreds of villages in Rakhine state that were once inhabited by the Rohingya, but have now been burned down.

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A total of 354 villages have either been completely or partially destroyed, Human Rights Watch said on December 18.

The data, which was gathered from Aug 25, the day of the Rohingya militant attack, to November 25, shows burned settlements in an area stretching 110 km (68 miles) from the green hills of Rakhine's northern tip to beaches near the state's capital Sittwe in the south.

See the interactive graphic here: http://tmsnrt.rs/2zGVUmt

Top officials in the United Nations and United States have described the Myanmar military's crackdown as ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar has denied human rights abuses, saying its military is engaged in legitimate counter-insurgency operations. The military exonerated itself of all accusations of atrocities in an internal investigation, which published its findings on Nov 13. Myanmar's civilian government has said that the burnings were carried out by Rohingya militants and the Rohingya themselves.

Myanmar's military did not respond to Reuters' questions about its role in the alleged atrocities against the Rohingya described in this graphic.