In order to veil dark side of Burma, its army and civilians are attempting to eradicate evidence of genocide of Rohingya Muslim minority by setting their bodies on fire, revealed an advocate for the minority group.
Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, which monitors violence in Burma’s Rakhine state, has claimed killing of at least 130 persons only in one settlement in the Rathedaung region, adding that dozens killings are being reported in other villages.
“A minimum of 130 people have been killed actually we think it’s more,” she told Newsday on the BBC World Service.
According to independent.co.uk, “The security forces have encircled villages and then [shot people] indiscriminately, but we also found that – compared perhaps to the violence that took place in October [and] November last year – there is more involvement of the local Buddhist population together with the military.”
She added: “We have reports of at least three other villages where at least dozens of people have been killed.”
“What we have found … is that now after the killings the military and other civilians are actually gathering the dead bodies and burning them so [as] not to leave any evidence.”
The advocate said that the reports were not confirmed as the Arakan Project had not yet conducted detailed interviews of victims in Bangladesh, but it had monitors that that were “still active inside Myanmar”, she said.
Meanwhile, Burmese security officials and militants are blaming each other for burning down houses of Muslims community and violence in Rakhine state.
According to local media, around 400 people have lost their lives, while nearly 73,000 have fled towards Bangladesh since violence erupted in August.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has also urged Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s de facto leader, to condemn the “tragic and shameful” treatment of the Burma’s Muslim Rohingya people.
Ms Yousafzai told her fellow laureate that the “world is waiting” for her response to the violence.
