Bodies of Rohingya Muslims burned to conceal evidence of genocide

Army soldiers and other civilians are attempting to conceal evidence of the massacre carried out in Myanmar’s Rakhine State against the Rohingya Muslim population by gathering bodies of the dead and burning them, according to a Thailand-based advocate group.

Chris Lewa, director of the Thailand-based “The Arakan Project,” which monitors violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, said that the organization had documented at least 130 deaths among Rohingya Muslims in the city of Rathedaung.

There are reports of three other villages in the same region where “dozens” of people have been massacred, according to Lewa.

“Security forces are besieging towns and randomly shooting at civilian populations. Compared to the events of last October, a large number of Buddhists are backing the country’s army in its campaigns in the Rakhine State.”

In an interview with the BBC, Lewa stated that she witnessed incidents of state violence against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, noting that in the city of Rathedaung alone, at least 130 Rohingya Muslims were killed.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has accused the Myanmar army of carrying out genocide against the Muslim Rohingya minority.

According to the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR), an estimated 125,000 people have crossed the muddy waters of the Naf River into Bangladesh since violence escalated on 25 August, leaving refugee camps overflowing with displaced Rohginya.

The Myanmar administration is blocking aid from reaching displaced and homeless Rohingya Muslims who fled violence raging in the Rakhine State.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances. Due to the Myanmar government restricting international foundations access to flash point regions, it has become increasingly difficult to provide an accurate death toll following the recent violence in the Rakhine State, as some watchdog groups put the number of civilian casualties in the hundreds and others say thousands of Rohingya Muslims lost their lives in the aftermath of the massacre.