‘Land grab by military’
> Myanmar builds bases where Rohingya once lived and prayed: Amnesty
YANGON: After driving nearly 700,000 Rohingya out of the country, Myanmar’s military is building bases where some of their homes and mosques once stood, Amnesty International said yesterday, citing new evidence from satellite imagery.
An army crackdown on insurgents on Aug 25 sent members of the minority fleeing to Bangladesh and saw over 350 villages razed in Rakhine state.
An Amnesty report published yesterday echoed previous ones by saying the remains of some of those villages – and some buildings not previously damaged – had been bulldozed.
As well as rapid housing and road construction in the area, at least three new security facilities were under construction, the global human rights group said.
In one case, Rohingya villagers who had remained in Myanmar were forcibly evicted to make way for a base, it said.
“What we are seeing in Rakhine is a land grab by the military on a dramatic scale,” Tirana Hassan, Amnesty’s crisis response director, said in a statement.
“New bases are being erected to house the very same security forces that have committed crimes against humanity against Rohingya.”
At least four mosques that had not been burned have been destroyed since late December, a time when significant conflict was not reported in the area, it said.
In one village, satellite imagery showed buildings for a new border police post appearing next to where a recently demolished mosque had stood.
Myanmar officials have said villages were being bulldozed to make way for new homes for returning refugees.
A repatriation deal between Myanmar and Bangladesh was reached last year but has not started. Myanmar has said temporary camps for refugees are ready.
Amnesty said Myanmar’s “reshaping” of the region where the Rohingya lived appeared to be designed to accommodate more security forces and non-Rohingya villagers, and could deter refugees from agreeing to return. – Reuters