Aung San Suu Kyi denies Rohingya villages ‘affected’ by violence

THE world has been waiting to hear from Aung San Suu Kyi. When she finally spoke, it wasn’t what they wanted to hear.

New satellite images reveal damage of ‘scorched earth campaign’, says Amnesty International.

THE world has been waiting for Aung San Suu Kyi to address the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar.

But when the Myanmar state counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize winner finally did, it wasn’t the response the international community wanted to hear.

Suu Kyi broke her silence today after pressure from human rights organisations to act on what has been described as “ethnic cleansing” in her country.

Suu Kyi fought back, saying the world was “totally unaware”, and asked to “remove the negative and increase the positive”.

“I understand that many of our friends around the world are concerned for the hordes of refugees fleeing,” she said.

“We too are concerned...we want to find out what the real problems are.”

In what is being described as a “textbook example” and a “mass-scale scorched-earth campaign”, at least 400,000 people are in peril as they flee to safety in Bangladesh three weeks after the fires and slaughter began. Last week it was reported that up to one million people have abandoned their homes.

But Suu Kyi, in a nationally televised address, denied the scale of the operation and said she does not fear the condemnation of the international community.

She said that more than half of Rohingya villages were not affected by the violence and condemned all “unlawful violence”, claiming her country had not seen an armed clash since September 5.

“We want to fid out why this exodus is happening,” she said.

“We would like to talk to those who have fled.

A snapshot of some of the recorded fires in Rakhine State.

Rohingya people have lived for centuries in the western state of Rakhine, in Myanmar, but for decades have been persecuted by the Myanmar government. They are not considered among the country’s 135 official ethnic groups. The country has even denied them citizenship since 1982 and the state is one of the poorest in the country.

On August 27, it is alleged Myanmar state security forces and vigilante mobs began to commit mass killings of Rohingya Muslim men, women and children.

It was in response to an August 25 attack by Muslim militants, who attacked two dozen police and military outposts. It is unclear who was responsible tor the initial attack.

Instead, the military unleashed what it called “clearance operations”. Myanmar’s army chief justified the slaughter as “unfinished business”.

As the country’s de facto leader and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Suu Kyi faced backlash over her silence in the coming weeks. She quickly drew criticism for her failure to condemn the actions of the Myanmar military.

In her speech, she said it was “not the intention of the Myanmar government to apportion blame or to abdicate responsibility.

“We condemn all human rights violation and unlawful violence. We are committed to the restoration of peace, stability and rule of law throughout the state.

“There are allegations and counter allegations and we have to listen to all of them. And we have to make sure these allegations are based on solid evidence before we take action,” Suu Kyi said.

According to The Globe and Mail, of 471 Rakhine villages selected for “clearance operations” by the military, 176 have been emptied. Amnesty International says it has detected 80 large-scale fires in inhabited areas across northern Rakhine State since August 25. Survivors have described being attacked with “balls of fire” — likely soldiers using rocket launchers.

The government has shut down the area so verification on the ground is difficult, but “hot spots” were detected by sensors over approximately 3,300 square kilometres.

Satellite imagery was analysed and 26 villages were found to show signs of recent burning, Amnesty International said. According to CNN, 40 per cent of Rohingya villages are now empty.

Satellite images from the village tract of Inn Din (above), a mixed ethnic area in south Maungdaw, clearly show how an area of Rohingya homes have been burned to the ground, while non-Rohingya areas alongside them appear to have been left untouched.

Suu Kyi claimed more than 50 per cent of the villages were still intact and that a “great majority have not joined the exodus”.

But within Myanmar, Suu Kyi appears a popular figure, with many supporters posting “we are with you” as she spoke, criticising the international community for being ignorant towards the country and its social sphere.

Suu Kyi claimed other small minority groups, including a Hindu population of which the world was “totally unaware”, were also affected in the violence.

She invited the international humanitarian community to “ask them [Rohingya] for yourself why you have chosen to remain in your villages when everything around them seems to be in a state of turmoil.”

“As you know there are many allegations. I have not gone into any of them because it is not my purpose to promote or encourage conflict but to try and promote harmony and understanding.

“I hope you will understand this and join us in our endeavour.”

While their houses burn, some of the Rakhine hide in forests nearby, others in mountains on higher ground. Some are preparing to flee, some have already left. Some have already been shot. Some have hit been hit by landmines.

“The legs of one are reduced to strings of flesh,” reporter Vanderklippe wrote.

The violence — and ensuing exodus — saw survivors bringing with them harrowing tales of rape and murder at the hands of the military.

“We saw rivers of blood,” said Abdur Sabur.

“There are many people dead, bodies in the roads.”

This was until recently a Rohingya Muslim village. Now it's just charred destruction. 700 buildings burned. Myanmar. https://t.co/v8nc9yGTAS pic.twitter.com/rt4GsVVXvq

— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) September 3, 2017

“When the military came, they started shooting at people who got very scared and started running. I saw the military shoot many people and kill two young boys,” one 48-year-old man told Amnesty.

“They used weapons to burn our houses. There used to be 900 houses in our village, now only 80 are left. There is no one left to even bury the bodies.”

Myanmar's army destroyed another 500 Rohingya Muslim homes in Maungdaw today. pic.twitter.com/nRYL3djEy0

— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) September 14, 2017

It’s a result not helped by the silence of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of failing to support the Muslim minority that has long complained of persecution.

“The evidence is irrefutable — the Myanmar security forces are setting northern Rakhine State ablaze in a targeted campaign to push the Rohingya people out of Myanmar,” said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Director.

“Make no mistake: this is ethnic cleansing. There is a clear and systematic pattern of abuse here. Security forces surround a village shoot people fleeing in panic and then torch houses to the ground.

“In legal terms, these are crimes against humanity — systematic attacks and forcible deportation of civilians.”

This child died shortly after this video was filmed. His body was torn apart by a landmine as he and his Rohingya Muslim family fled Myanmar pic.twitter.com/fdNpmbuc1q

— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) September 14, 2017

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