The Myanmar security forces, sometimes joined by local vigilantes, surrounded Rohingya villages throughout the Myanmar’s northern part of Rakhine State and killed at least hundreds of the Rohingya villagers.

“As Rohingya women, men, and children fled their homes, the soldiers and police officers often opened fire, killing or seriously injuring at least hundreds of people,” said Amnesty International (AI) in statement on Wednesday.

Apparently, Myanmar security forces began the crackdown in the hours and days following the ARSA attacks on 25 August.

According to the AI, survivors described running to nearby hills and rice fields, where they hid until the forces left.

The elderly and people with disabilities were often unable to flee, and burned to death in their homes after the military set them alight, it added.

AI also stated that this pattern was replicated in dozens of villages across Maungdaw, Rathedaung, and Buthidaung townships. But the security forces, and in particular the Myanmar military, appear to have unleashed their most lethal response in specific villages near where ARSA carried out its attacks.

Amnesty International said it documented events in five such villages where at least a dozen people were killed.

The AI sates that it interviewed 17 survivors of the massacre in Chut Pyin, six of whom had gunshot wounds.

Almost all had lost at least one family member, with some losing many. They consistently described the Myanmar military, joined by Border Guard Police (BGP) and local vigilantes, surrounding Chut Pyin, opening fire on those fleeing, and then systematically burning Rohingya houses and buildings, it added.

In the interview one Fatima, 12, told Amnesty International that she was at home with her parents, eight siblings, and grandmother when they saw fire rising from another part of their village.

She also said men in uniform opened fire on them from behind. She saw both her father and 10-year-old sister get shot, then Fatima was also hit in the back of her right leg, just above the knee.

Another victim Sona Mia, 77, said he was at home in Koe Tan Kauk when Myanmar soldiers surrounded the village and opened fire on 27 August.

'Crimes against humanity'

In a statement, the Amnesty International termed the crimes against the Rohingya people as crimes against humanity.

“Witness accounts, satellite imagery and data, and photo and video evidence gathered by Amnesty International all point to the same conclusion: hundreds of thousands of Rohingya women, men, and children have been the victims of a widespread and systematic attack, amounting to crimes against humanity.”

The AI said the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court lists 11 types of acts which, when knowingly committed during such an attack, constitute crimes against humanity.

Amnesty International has consistently documented at least six of these amid the current wave of violence in northern Rakhine State. The accounts are murder, deportation and forcible displacement, torture, rape and other sexual violence, persecution, and other inhumane acts such as denying food and other life-saving provisions.



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