‘Those that ran were hacked dead, others shot’
Myanmar soldiers barred the entrance to the mosque, men arrived with machetes and petrol cans and then, according to Rohingya eyewitnesses, the killing began.
“Those that ran were hacked to death. Others that got away were shot by the army,” said Master Kamal, a 53yearold teacher, and one of the survivors of the massacre in Aung Sit Pyin in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
“They were burning houses. We fled to save our lives.”
Kamal said he saw three neighbours – including a father and son – butchered as he fled, making a 10day trek across monsoondrenched hills, rivers and fields to Bangladesh.
Interviews with about 10 people from the village who found refuge at Balukhali camp in Bangladesh revealed horrific details of the events in Aung Sit Pyin on Aug 25.
The stateless Muslim minority blames Myanmar’s army and Buddhist mobs for the widespread killings.
The testimony is difficult to verify because access to Rakhine is heavily restricted.
Myanmar’s government has blamed Rohingya militants for the atrocities, including firebombing their own villages and killing civilians suspected of collaborating with the army.
Mohammad Amin, a 66yearold farmer whose father was a village chief, said his family had lived in Aung Sit Pyin for three generations.
“This is the first time we have fled. I have never witnessed violence like this,” said the wiry farmer, wrapped in a tattered blue sarong in a mudsplattered Balukhali shanty.
When the shooting began he ran into the jungle to hide, saying he crossed a river to avoid soldiers pursuing civilians.
Families scattered. Amin spent days searching for his seven sons and daughters in the brush, dodging military patrols.
“From the other side of the river, I could see everything burning,” he said. Myanmar’s army says at least 400 people, mainly militants, have been killed in the violence.
But there are fears that figure is underestimated, with other Rakhine villages also the target of alleged massacres.
Many refugees from Aung Sit Pyin reported seeing people slaughtered, or passing corpses cut down or burned as they sprinted in all directions from advancing forces.
Twentysix families who made it out are now cramped underneath a large tarpaulin sheet in a muddy field behind Balukhali. There are no toilets nor clean water.
Some said the journey took seven days. Others said they spent up to 12 days hiding from the military and tackling steep passes and rainsoaked jungle to reach Bangladesh.
Anwara Begum said she plunged into a river with her fouryearold son, as soldiers fired at fleeing villagers.
She clung to debris but lost contact with her other five children in the chaos, saying she hid terrified in the hills while helicopters buzzed overhead.
“I don’t know whether I will ever see them again,” the 35yearold said.