Campaign group Amnesty International said on Tuesday it had gathered evidence that the Rohingya military group Arsa carried out deadly massacres and abductions of the Hindu community in Myanmar’s Rakhine state last year.
It said masked ARSA fighters killed as many as 99 Hindu men, women and children near a remote village named Kha Maung Seik shortly after launching the coordinated attacks on security posts.
Some women said they were not killed only because they and their children agreed to convert to Islam.
The report also details on 26 August other Arsa attacks on the outskirts of Maungdaw town, near Myo Thu Gyi village, where more Hindus and Buddhists were killed.
“It’s hard to ignore the sheer brutality of ARSA’s actions, which have left an indelible impression on the survivors we’ve spoken to,” Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s crisis response director, said in a statement.
“Accountability for these atrocities is every bit as crucial as it is for the crimes against humanity carried out by Myanmar’s security forces in northern Rakhine State.”
ARSA has not yet responded to the Amnesty International report.
It is unclear why the alleged attack was carried out, but some suspect the militants believed the Hindu community sympathised with the predominantly Buddhist government’s anti-Rohingya stance.
> Shiuly Rina
Amnesty Says, Rohingya Insurgents Slaughtered Hindus in Myanmar
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