Lawmaker says satellite imagery of burned villages and accounts of rape are ‘wrong’

01 November 2016
Lawmaker says satellite imagery of burned villages and accounts of rape are ‘wrong’

A state lawmaker said yesterday that satellite imagery of burned villages and accounts of rape and looting by soldiers carried by international media or human rights groups were “wrong,” RFA reported on 1 November.
International media and aid organisations have issued reports accusing security forces of arbitrarily arresting residents, killing unarmed civilians, burning down homes, and raping women in Maungdaw in the aftermath of an Oct. 9 attack that killed nine guards on Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh.
The government has denied the reports, which emerged from an information blackout as the army has restricted journalists, aid workers, and human rights monitors from accessing Maungdaw.
Rakhine state lawmaker Aung Win, leader of a committee set up to investigate the Maungdaw attacks, told RFA’s Myanmar Service that outsiders were getting the story wrong because they hadn’t visited the area at the centre of the conflict.