The UN has said Myanmar's army is involved in a "systematic" effort to rid the country of Rohingya. Around half of the Rohingya population has been forced into Bangladesh.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Zumawire/Km Asad
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Myanmar's army has carried out "well-organized, coordinated and systematic" attacks on Rohingya aimed at expelling them and ensuring they never return, the United Nations said Wednesday.
In its first major report on violence in Rakhine state, the UN Human Rights Office said security forces had murdered, raped, tortured, pillaged and burned down Rohingya villages and crops.
"Credible information indicates that the Myanmar security forces purposely destroyed the property of the Rohingyas, scorched their dwellings and entire villages in northern Rakhine State, not only to drive the population out in droves but also to prevent the fleeing Rohingya victims from returning to their homes," the report states.
The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh
Rohingya Muslims fleeing from fighting in Myanmar face attempts by Bangladesh authorities to send them home despite a UN appeal that they be allowed to stay. The Rohingya are classed as illegal immigrants in Myanmar.
Seeking refuge
A series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine State triggered a crackdown by Myanmar forces that has sent a stream of Rohingya villagers fleeing to Bangladesh. About 400 people have been killed in the clashes in Buddist-majority Myanmar.
Mass evacuation
A Rohingya man passes a child though a barbed wire border fence on the border with Bangladesh. Myanmar accused the Rohingya insurgents of torching seven villages, one outpost, and two parts of Maungdaw town.
Image: Getty Images/R.Asad
Buddhist refugees on their way south
The crackdown by Myanmar forces also sparked a mass evacuation of thousands of Buddhist residents of the area. Tension has long been high between the Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists, leading to bloody rioting in 2012. Rakhine Buddhists, feeling unsafe after the upsurge in fighting, are moving south to the state's capital, Sittwe, where Buddhists are a majority and have greater security.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
No entry
Bangladeshi border guards block people from crossing. Thousands of Rohingyas have sought to flee the fighting to Bangladesh, with nearly 30,000 crossing over. Bangladesh, which is already host to more than 400,000 Rohingya said it will not accept any more refugees, despite an appeal by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for Dhaka to allow Rohingya to seek safety.
Image: Reuters/M. Ponir Hossain
Humanitarian crisis
An aid worker with an international agency in Bangladesh reports: "What we're seeing is that many Rohingya people are sick. This is because they got stuck in the border before they could enter. It's mostly women and children." The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M.Alam
Not welcome in Bangladesh
A group of Rohingya refugees takes shelter at the Kutuupalang makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. Bangladesh's unwillingness to host more refugees became apparent in the government's plan to relocate Rohingyas to a remote island that is mostly flooded during the monsoon season.
Image: Reuters/M. P. Hossain
Stranded in no man's land
Rohingya children make their way through water as they try to come to the Bangladesh side from no man's land. Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees are believed to be stuck at the border to Bangladesh.
Image: Reuters/M. Ponir Hossain
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The findings are based on UN investigators' interviews with dozens of Rohingya Muslims and groups conducted in mid-September.
The report cites evidence that "clearance operations" started in the beginning of August, countering the Myanmar government's position that the army acted after Rohingya militants attacked security posts on August 25.
Armed Buddhist ethnic Rakhine "mobs" also participated in the violence that has driven nearly 500,000 Rohingya Muslims into squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh since August.
Wiping out a people
UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, who previously called the crackdown "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing," called the army's actions "a cynical ploy to forcibly transfer large numbers of people without possibility of return."
The report said that teachers, cultural and religious leaders were targeted "in an effort to diminish Rohingya history, culture and knowledge."
Aiding Rohingya in Bangladesh
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"Efforts were taken to effectively erase signs of memorable landmarks in the geography of the Rohingya landscape and memory in such a way that a return to their lands would yield nothing but a desolate and unrecognizable terrain," it added.
Young girls were raped by men "all dressed in army uniforms" in front of their families, civilians shot at close range or in the back as they fled, and people burned alive, the report said.
The UN said there was evidence to suggest military operations are ongoing despite government claims they have ended.
Myanmar's government does not consider Rohingya citizens, referring to them instead as Bengalis from Bangladesh, despite their presence in the country for decades.
The government says it is cracking down on the Rohingya militants.
