Myanmar military says death toll in clashes reaches 399
TEKNAF, Bangladesh — Myanmar’s military said Friday that nearly 400 people died in recent violence in the western state of Rakhine triggered by attacks on security forces by insurgents from the Rohingya ethnic minority.
Both sides exchanged charges of atrocities, as thousands of Rohingya fled across the border to Bangladesh.
The death toll, posted on the Facebook page of the country’s military commander, is a sharp increase over the previously reported number of just over 100.
The statement said all but 29 of the 399 dead were insurgents, whom it described as terrorists.
The statement said there had been 90 armed clashes, including an initial 30 attacks by insurgents Aug. 25, making the combat more extensive than announced.
The army, responding to the Aug. 25 attacks, launched what it called clearance operations against the insurgents.
Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, say security forces and vigilantes attacked and burned Rohingya villages, shooting civilians and causing others to flee.
Hundreds of civilians were killed, they say. They have posted photos, videos and details on social media they say serve as evidence.
The government says it is the insurgents who have been burning homes and killing members of the Buddhist ethnic Rakhine community.
The insurgent group that claimed responsibility for last week’s attacks, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, said it acted to protect Rohingya communities.
It is nearly impossible to verify information issued by either the government or Rohingya sympathizers because the government has barred most journalists from the area, except on limited official tours.
A human rights group, Fortify Rights, said Friday that witnesses who escaped have supported accusations by Rohingya advocates that government security personnel and civilian vigilantes “committed mass killings of Rohingya Muslim men, women, and children in Chut Pyin village, Rathedaung township, on Aug. 27.”
“Survivors and eyewitnesses from Chut Pyin told Fortify Rights that soldiers and armed residents burned every house in the village,” the group said in a statement. It said survivors who returned to the village after the attackers left estimated the death toll there to be more than 200.
It quoted a 41-year-old survivor identified by the pseudonym “Abdul Rahman” as saying soldiers killed and burned his brother along with others.
“We found (my other family members) in the fields,” it quoted him as saying. “They had marks on their bodies from bullets and some had cuts. My two nephews, their heads were off. One was 6 years old and the other was 9 years old. My sister-in-law was shot with a gun.”
Government accusations of atrocities committed by the insurgents are less detailed.
“Some of the ethnic natives while on their way were brutally butchered by the terrorists applying inhuman ways without any reason,” Friday’s military statement said.