Destroying Evidence? Rohingya Villages in Myanmar Obliterated

Around 700,000 Rohingya people have escaped from Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh in the past six months, fleeing brutal violence by Myanmar’s military, something that the U.N. has described as ethnic cleansing.

The governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh recently reached an agreement to repatriate thousands of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, but there are serious concerns about how safe it will be for any of the refugees to return.

Now, according to Human Rights Watch, recent satellite images appear to show that Myanmar authorities have razed at least 55 abandoned Rohingya villages to the ground in Rakhine state. 

“Many of these villages were scenes of atrocities against Rohingya and should be preserved so that the experts appointed by the U.N. to document these abuses can properly evaluate the evidence to identify those responsible,” Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. 

Farah Kabir, country director in Bangladesh for ActionAid, an international charity that has been assisting Rohingya refugees, discusses the latest plight of the Muslim minority ethnic group.

Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear the full conversation with Farah Kabir. Don't have time to listen right now? Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts to take this segment with you on the go.