New fires in Rohingya village challenge Myanmar’s claims
BANGKOK: Journalists saw new fires burning Thursday in a Myanmar village that had been abandoned by Rohingya Muslims, and pages ripped from Islamictexts that were left on the ground. That intensifies doubts about government claims that members of the persecuted minority have been destroying their own homes.
About two dozen journalists saw the fire sin Gawdu Zara village in northern Rakh in estate on a government-controlled trip. About 164,000 R oh ingyaf rom the area have fled across the border into Bangladesh in less than two weeks since August 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked police outposts in Gawdu Zara and several other villages, the UN refugee agency said on Thursday.
The military has said nearly 400 people, mostly Rohingya, have died in clashes and that troops were conducting “clearance operations.” It blames insurgents for setting the villages on fire, without offering proof.
R oh ingyawh oh ave fled My an- mar, however, have described large-scale violence perpetrated by Myanmar troops and Buddhist mobs — setting fire to their homes, spraying bullets indiscriminately, stabbing civilians and ordering them to abandon their homes or be killed.
On the Myanmar side of the border, reporters saw no Rohingya in any of the five destroyed villages they were allowed to tour Thursday, making it unlikely they could have been responsible for the new fires. An ethnic Rakhine villager who emerged from the smoke said police and Rakhine Buddhists had set the fires. The villager ran off before he could be asked anything else. No police were seen beyond those accompanying the journalists.