Myanmar army apologises for mistaken photos in book on Rohingya crisis

'Heinous'

Of the 80 images in the book, most were recent pictures of army chief Min Aung Hlaing meeting foreign dignitaries or other officials visiting Rakhine.

Of eight photos presented as historical images, Reuters found the provenance of three to be faked and was unable to determine the provenance of the five others.

One faded black-and-white image shows a crowd of men who appear to be on a long march with their backs bent over. "Bengalis intruded into the country after the British Colonialism occupied the lower part of Myanmar," the caption reads.

The photo is apparently intended to depict Rohingya arriving in Myanmar during the colonial era, which ended in 1948. Reuters determined the picture is in fact a distorted version of a colour image taken in 1996 of refugees who had fled the genocide in Rwanda.

Another picture, also printed in black-and-white, shows men aboard a rickety boat. "Bengalis entered Myanmar via the watercourse," the caption reads.

Actually, the original photo depicts Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants leaving Myanmar in 2015, when tens of thousands fled for Thailand and Malaysia. The original has been rotated and blurred so the photo looks granular. It was sourced from Myanmar's own Ministry of Information.

The Myawady's publishing arm, in its statement, made no mention of an alterations of images.

The prime minister of neighbouring Bangladesh, where about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from a Myanmar military crackdown launched after Rohingya insurgent attacks in August last year, denounced the use of the photographs when she was asked in a news conference about them.

"What Myanmar has done is simply heinous. They have lowered their reputation," Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a news conference in Dhaka on Sunday.

"They are diminishing their position in the international arena."

The 117-page book gives the army's account of the crackdown last year which led to reports of mass killings, rape, and arson.

Much of the content is sourced to the military's "True News" information unit, which since the start of the crisis has distributed news giving the army's position, mostly via Facebook.

The book is on sale at bookstores across the commercial capital of Yangon.