Myanmar bulldozes 55 Rohingya villages

The Myanmar government has cleared at least 55 Rohingya villages of all structures and vegetation, including scenes of atrocities, in an operation to destroy the evidence of crimes against humanity, the Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

The rights body said most of these villages were among the 362 completely or partially destroyed by arson since August 25, 2017, during the military campaign that sent nearly 700,000 Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh.

The HRW came up with the statement based on a time series of satellite imagery recorded between November 11, 2017, and February 19, 2018. The imagery suggests the demolitions are ongoing.

“Many of these villages were scenes of atrocities against Rohingyas and should be preserved so that the experts appointed by the UN to document these abuses can properly evaluate the evidence to identify those responsible,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of the New York-based global watchdog.

The Myanmar government earlier claimed bulldozing of villages is part of a plan to rebuild villages so that the refugees can live in their place of origin or nearest to their place of origin when they go back under a repatriation deal signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Bangladesh has provided Myanmar with a list of over 8,000 Rohingyas, but no refugees have returned to their homeland yet.

As per the deal, Myanmar will verify the residence of the Rohingya based on residence documents or information provided by them on their houses, nearby schools or mosques in Rakhine.

But, HRW says, bulldozing these areas threatens to erase both the memory and the legal claims of the Rohingyas who lived there.

“The government's clearing of dozens of villages only heightens concerns about Rohingya families being able to return home,” Adams said.

Earlier this week, the Arakan Project, which documents abuses against the Rohingyas in Rakhine, said Myanmar government was bulldozing the site of a Rohingya mass grave in Maung Nu of Buthidaung Township.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, Myanmar Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement U Win Myat Aye said his government needed about two weeks to verify the first list of more than 8,000 refugees sent by the Bangladeshi government, reports Myanmar Times. 

“We will repatriate [the refugees] immediately after we complete verification,” he said, adding that Myanmar was ready to accept as many as 300 refugees a day on both land and river routes once verification is completed.

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

Myanmar security forces are accused of mass killings, rapes, making arbitrary arrests, lootings and burning of Rohingya villages in Rakhine State.

In December last year, the Doctors Without Borders in December last year said at least 6,700 Rohingyas were killed in one month since the security operations began in August last year.

Amid a global call for probe and justice, Myanmar refused to grant visas to the UN Fact-Finding Mission, preventing it from collecting evidence in the affected areas. The country also blocked access for all independent media and human rights groups to northern Rakhine.

A Myanmar military probe concluded in November that no violations or abuses were committed by security forces, contrary to information reported by the UN, media outlets, and human rights groups.

Following the discovery of a mass grave in the village of Inn Din in late December, the Myanmar military, however, admitted that members of the security forces and Rakhine villagers had unlawfully killed 10 men and violated the “rules of engagement.”

The HRW yesterday said the Myanmar government earlier failed to credibly investigate serious alleged abuses committed by security forces since August 25.

And deliberately demolishing villages to destroy evidence of grave crimes is obstruction of justice, it said as rights bodies demand referring Myanmar's atrocities to the International Criminal Court.   

“Donor governments should ensure they don't provide any direct or indirect support that would hamper justice or assist those responsible for ethnic cleansing,” Adams said.

The rights body further said the UN Security Council, other UN agencies and donors should demand the Myanmar government immediately halt the demolition of Rohingya villages.

The villages “should be treated as crime scenes that should be preserved until the UN Fact-Finding Mission is given access to the area to carry out investigations,” it added.

Meanwhile, Rab yesterday detained 11 foreign nationals at Rohingya camps in Ukhia and Teknaf as they failed to show “necessary documents”.

Of them, two each are Italian and British national and one each from the Netherlands, Turkey, South Korea, Kenya, Brazil, Belgium and Norway.

They were later released around 8:00pm upon taking bonds, said Abul Khair, officer-in-charge of Ukhia Police Station.

UNICEF CONCERNED ABOUT ROHINGYA KIDS

The Unicef has sought urgent efforts to help more than 720,000 Rohingya children who are threatened either by the approaching cyclone season in Bangladesh or by ongoing violence and denial of their basic rights in Myanmar, reports UNB.

In a report marking six months since the start of the latest exodus of Rohingya refugees into southern Bangladesh, Unicef says that floods caused by the forthcoming cyclone season are likely to engulf the fragile and insanitary camps where the most of the refugees are living, raising the likelihood of waterborne disease outbreaks and forcing clinics, learning centres and other facilities for children to close.

According to the report, an estimated 185,000 Rohingya children remain in Myanmar's Rakhine State, fearful of the violence and horror that drove so many of their relatives and neighbours to flee.

In Bangladesh, there are estimated to be around 534,000 Rohingya refugee children from last year's and previous influxes.

"Some 720,000 Rohingya children are essentially trapped - either hemmed in by violence and forced displacement inside Myanmar or stranded in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh because they can't return home," said Manuel Fontaine, Unicef Director of Emergency Programmes.