A satellite image from Nov. 10 shows a Muslim village burned down in an arson spree allegedly committed by Myanmar’s army. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 400 buildings in Muslim-majority parts of Myanmar have been destroyed.
Credit:
Human Rights Watch/Courtesy
If Myanmar’s notorious army is to be believed — that’s a very big if — its soldiers are facing a highly deranged adversary.
Along Myanmar’s marshy coastline, villages keep going up in flames. All of them belong to the Rohingya, a horribly persecuted Muslim group. The arsonists? Muslims themselves, according to the army.
The Rohingya, we are told, are burning their own homes to attract well-armed government platoons — and then sprinting at them with knives, berserker style, so that they can get mowed down by the dozens.
This narrative defies logic. But it’s hard to challenge directly — and that’s how the army likes it.
Myanmar’s military has turned much of the Rohingya’s homeland into a no-go zone for aid workers and non-compliant journalists. It has become, in the words of one expert, an “information black hole.”
Relieved of prying eyes, the military is aggressively purging Muslim villages that have been infiltrated by an “extremist violent ideology.”
These raids began shortly after the October emergence of a poorly armed Rohingya militant groupnumbering in the hundreds. According to government reports, a series of clashes have killed about 17 officers and more than 65 militants.