Myanmar building military bases over Rohingya villages

Myanmar is building military bases over flattened Rohingya villages, an international rights group said.Security forces have bulldozed houses and started constructing at least three new security facilities in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, said Amnesty International’s Remaking Rakhine State report, which was published on Monday. The report, which said construction of the three army outposts began in January, is based on satellite imagery and witness statements from Rohingya refugees. “What we are seeing in Rakhine state is a land grab by the military on a dramatic scale. New bases are being erected to house the very same security forces that have committed crimes against humanity against Rohingya,” Tirana Hassan, Amnesty’s crisis response director, said. “The new construction is entrenching the already dehumanising discrimination they have faced in Myanmar.” Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since last August as a result of a government crackdown launched in the wake of deadly attacks on military posts by members of the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA). Eyewitnesses told Amnesty that Rohingya in Buthidaung township had been forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for the development. Al Jazeera was not able to independently verify those claims.

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