A spokesman for Myanmar’s military junta denied claims that army troops and their local allies killed 76 people when they invaded villages in the western Rakhine state last week, state media reported on Wednesday.
Rakhine state is at the epicenter of Myanmar’s ongoing civil war, in which pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic armed groups are battling Myanmar’s military leaders who seized power in 2021 after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Fighting in the region has also raised fears that it could lead to a resurgence of organized violence against the Muslim Rohingya minority, similar to what prompted at least 740,000 Rohingya to flee to safety in neighboring Bangladesh in 2017.
Reports of villagers being killed by Burmese troops are backed up by photographs and harrowing stories from survivors.
The genocide in Byin Phyu village in northern Rakhine State was alleged by the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group that has been on the offensive against military bases in Rakhine since November last year, taking control of nine of Rakhine’s 17 townships and one in neighbouring Chin State.
The village of Byin Phyu is located on the outskirts of Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, and is strategically located with easy access to the Bay of Bengal.
The Arakan Army is a well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Buddhist Rakhine minority political movement which seeks autonomy from the central Burmese government.
However, the country has also been accused of serious human rights violations, most notably in relation to its occupation of Buthidaung township on May 18. The country is accused of forcibly evicting the town’s estimated 200,000 residents, mostly of the Rohinga ethnic minority, and then setting most of the township’s buildings on fire.
Authorities have denied the allegations and blamed the military for burning the town, but residents interviewed by phone after the incident told The Associated Press that the Arakan Army was to blame.
In this photo provided by displaced Rohingya people, bright red flames can be seen in the distance from a burned-down house in Buthidaung town, Rakhine State, Burma, on May 17, 2024. (AP Photo)
The conflicting claims could not be independently verified because strict travel restrictions in the region make it virtually impossible to directly verify the details of such cases.
Details of the incident in Byin Phyu village were similarly contentious.
Major General Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the ruling Military Council, was quoted as saying by the state-run Myanmar Alin newspaper on Wednesday that military forces had visited the village on May 29, searching for members of the Arakan Army and detaining about 20 people for questioning.
He said security forces were forced to shoot and kill three male suspects who were not villagers after they tried to grab a gun from a military officer, but that there had been no mass killings.
According to a statement released by the Arakan Army on Tuesday, about 170 soldiers from the Sittwe-based Army Provincial Command, accompanied by armed members of pro-military ethnic Rakhine groups and local Muslims recruited by the military, arrested the entire population of Byin Phyu village, killing 76 people.
They alleged that military assailants had brutally treated the prisoners and raped three of the women.
Of 20 area residents contacted by The Associated Press, only one was willing to talk about the incident, and several said they would not speak because they were worried about family friends who had been detained.
One woman, whose brother was among those arrested, said she did not know how many had been killed or even whether her brother was still alive. She spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her safety.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on May 24 noted new attacks on Rohingya civilians by the military and rival ethnic armed groups in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, and warned of “horrifying and disturbing reports” of the impact of the new violence.
The fighting in Rakhine State has raised particular concerns as it suggests the Rohingya minority may face renewed violent persecution.
The Rohingya have been targeted in a brutal counterinsurgency campaign that included rape and murder, and an estimated 740,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017 after their villages were burned by government forces.
The Rohingya have lived in Burma for generations but are widely viewed by the country’s Buddhist majority, and especially the ethnic Rakhine minority, as having immigrated illegally from Bangladesh. They face significant prejudice and are commonly denied citizenship and other basic rights.
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After the Arakan Army took Buthidaung on May 18, Rohingya activists accused the army of burning homes in the town and forcing residents to flee. The Arakan Army denied the allegations as unfounded and blamed the destruction on junta forces and local Muslims it said were fighting alongside the army.
