Myanmar's army burned down dozens of Rohingya homes within
days of signing a refugee repatriation deal with Bangladesh, showing the
agreement was a mere “public relations stunt”, Human Rights Watch (HRW)
said on Monday.
The rights group, citing analysis of
satellite imagery, said buildings in 40 villages were destroyed in
October and November, increasing the total to 354 villages that had been
partially or completely razed since last August.
Dozens
of buildings were burned the same week Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a
memorandum of understanding on November 23 to begin returning refugees
from Bangladesh within two months, HRW said in a report.
“The
Burmese army's destruction of Rohingya villages within days of signing a
refugee repatriation agreement with Bangladesh shows that commitments
to safe returns were just a public relations stunt,” said Brad Adams,
HRW's Asia director, in the report, adding safety pledges for returnees
could not be taken seriously.
Deadly attacks by Rohingya
insurgents on August 25 prompted a ferocious military crackdown on the
Muslim minority living in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine state.
More
than 655,000 of them have fled across the border to Bangladesh since
then, bringing horrific accounts of rape, extrajudicial killing and
arson.
The United States and United Nations have described the process as ethnic cleansing.
The UN rights chief has suggested the operation contains “elements of genocide”.
Responding
to international pressure, Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government inked
an agreement with Bangladesh in late November to start the repatriation
of Rohingya refugees within two months.
But HRW said it was difficult to believe this could be carried out responsibly.
“Myanmar
is playing the most cynical of games, with Aung San Suu Kyi and her
team signing a refugee repatriation deal that contains no real
guarantees of protection to returnees, while on the ground the security
forces continue their campaign of torching the villages the Rohingya
want to return to,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of HRW's Asia
division, told AFP.
Aid groups have said they will boycott any new camps set up in northern Rakhine.
Last
week the group Doctors Without Borders released a survey which found
that nearly 7,000 Rohingya had been killed in the Rakhine violence.
The
military has put the number in the hundreds and denied targeting
civilians or committing atrocities, while Suu Kyi said major security
operations stopped in early September.
Myanmar has in the past blamed fires in villages on insurgents.
“I am not sure of the number of villages” affected, government spokesman Zaw Htay told AFP, without providing additional comment on the HRW report.
