A Rohingya Muslim militant organization slaughtered dozens of Hindus in Myanmar last year amid violence that included the military’s bloody campaign that forced some 700,000 Rohingya to flee the country, a report released Tuesday by Amnesty International said.
The report marked the most definitive account of atrocities against civilians allegedly committed by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in violence that engulfed the western state of Rakhine. The military has borne the brunt of human-rights scrutiny. The aid agency Doctors Without Borders estimates that some 6,000 Rohingya were killed and the U.N. said the campaign bore the hallmarks of genocide. But the military has contended that the militant organization massacred civilians in addition to waging coordinated attacks against police and military outposts.
Both Muslims and Hindus are minorities in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar, including in Rakhine state, but the Rohingya Muslims have been the target of focused persecution for decades. The Myanmar government considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and a security threat.
A Sunday afternoon massacre last August could rank as one of the largest by Myanmar‘s security forces since the military initiated its campaign against the Rohningya. (May 11, 2018)
Amnesty International said that it had interviewed numerous Hindus, including survivors, who were present during the alleged massacres and reviewed other evidence, such as photos of mass graves.
One attack documented in the report occurred in Ah Nauk Kha Maung, a mixed Hindu-Muslim village, where the militant organization allegedly abducted 69 Hindu villagers. According to villager accounts shared with Amnesty, the militants blindfolded and robbed the Hindus, marched them to a creek and executed most of them by weapons including knives and iron rods. Of the 69 captives, only 16 were spared—women and children who agreed to convert to Islam. The report documented similar violence elsewhere.