Maung Nu Massacre

On the night of August 24/25, 2017, militants of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) launched an offensive in northern Rakhine state in Myanmar, attacking some 30 government security posts. Starting perhaps then or in the following days, Rohingya activists and supporters claim a string of massacres and other abuses against them, as collective punishment by the Myanmar (Burmese) government.

Groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International condemn these attacks, citing perhaps three largest massacres as:
 * Chut Pyin, Aug. 27
 * Maung Nu, Aug. 27
 * Tula Toli, Aug. 30

Maung Nu standa apart, somewhat, as strikingly similar to and related to another massacre preceding it, which Rihingya activists deny - the Kha Maung Seik Massacre of Hindu villagers (Wikipedia article). In Maung Nu, it's claimed at least 80 Rohingya Muslim civilians, perhaps 100, or up to 150 or 200 by some accounts, were killed or went missing in the rampage, as reported by dozens of alleged survivors. In Kha Maung Seik, about half of the feared 86-93 bodies have been discovered, based on tips from female survivors the killers converted to Islam and kept - briefly - as "wives."

False Claims?
Or even a genuine massacre by the ARSA or allies recycled?
 * Monitor on Massacre Marketing: Is the Maung Nu Massacre A Recycled Islamist Atrocity?

Timeline of reports
Considering the possible conflation between two reported massacres of remarkably similar details (see Monitor article linked above), it seems worth considering who said what about each one and when. For reference Kha Maung Seik is the alleged August 25 massacre of Hindu villagers, and Maung Nu is the alleged August 27 massacre of Muslim Rohingya villagers. ''Witnesses said that after the killings, the soldiers gathered the bodies on green tarps and loaded them onto pushcarts, then brought the bodies to military vehicles. The removal of bodies took hours, several witnesses said.'' ''“I saw outside that there were piles of dead bodies.” Mustafa said. “I could see the soldiers using carts [to move the bodies] and I recognized one of the carts was mine.” Mustafa said he heard the sounds of the trucks and vehicles for four hours.''
 * August 25, Kha Maung Seik: alleged massacre - no immediate reports located
 * August 27, Maung Nu: alleged massacre - no immediate reports located
 * September 5, Kha Maung Seik: Irrawady report "The Daily Star said that the displaced villagers estimated that more than 80 members of their communities in Rakhine State had been killed by unidentified armed men ... reportedly killed by Muslim militants" An 8-yar-old girl was away working and lived - "One of her elder sisters is among eight women who said they were initially abducted by militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), but now sheltering at a relief camp in Bangladesh’s Kutupalong District. "
 * September 6, Kha Maung Seik: Government-Buddhists did it Reuters report "Now in Bangladesh, 20 Muslims and Hindus gave interviews in which they recounted how they were forced out of their village of Kha Maung Seik in Myanmar’s Rakhine State on Aug. 25." One says “All the Muslims in our village, about 10,000, fled." The army is blamed for initial assault, with civilian Buddhist thugs brought in for the massacre. Some of the 8 captured women were presented for this article, telling what they now insist was a false story: "A group of Hindu women refugees in Kutapalong said they saw eight Hindu men killed by Buddhist Rakhines after they refused to attack Muslims. “They asked my husband to join them to kill Rohingya but he refused, so they killed him,” said Anika Bala, 15. Six months pregnant, she said Muslims helped her get to Bangladesh."
 * Sept 12, Kha Maung Seik: video: Reka Dhar says she doesn't know who were the masked men that hacked her husband to death, but some nice Muslims agreed to help her and others escape "because we promised them we would convert to their religion."
 * September 16, Maung Nu: First mention of a massacre here, and it's on the wrong day.Washington Post front page story "The latest wave of violence began Aug. 25, when (ARSA) attacked 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine state, killing 12. ... The soldiers arrived in (Maung Nu) just after 8 a.m., the villagers said, ... The military’s retribution for a Rohingya militant attack on police posts earlier that day had begun." Photo caption adds: "Mohammed Rafique, center with stick, was wounded during an attack on his village in Burma on Aug. 25. His mother, Khalida Begum, sits to his left."
 * September 16, Kha Maung Seik: Two young Hindu widows have been released and speak on video (English subtitles)
 * September 21, Kha Maung Seik: Al Jazeera English video report from the camps speaks to two others of the kidnapped girls (unknown to reporter). Annica Bhar (15, pregnant, cited above) tells how "masked men" killed her husband and others while she and a friend (name spoken but unclear) "were spared" (unexplained). The reporter suggests it was government forces behind it.
 * September 25, Kha Maung Seik: Following tips from the freed women, another 17 bodies were found, for a total of 45. A press conference is held at the site where government officials, Hindu locals, witnesses, and community leaders agree ARSA was behind the crimes one month earlier, spurring numerous news reports over the following days. (Reuters - Daily Mail - AFP ...)
 * September 27, Kha Maung Seik: ARSA tweet "Burmese Govt has to Stop 'Victim Blaming', Allow Investigations into Atrocities; ARSA Denies of Targetting Civilians." Attached statement denies specific crimes alleged in the Hindu villages on August 25. Someone posts a snippet of this longer video of the captive Hindu women thanking the Muslims for saving them from the Government-Hindu massacre.
 * October 3/4, Maung Nu: Human Rights Watch report with revised massacre date of August 27 and more alleged details. Emphasis is given to the alleged removal of bodies, raising the question of where (or if) those bodies will turn up. The August 25 clashes are mentioned as sparking the massacre, but no allegations of a massacre on that day, in either or any locale, is mentioned. It doesn't seem HRW has had anything to say regarding the alleged Kha Maung Seik massacre, here or anywhere. Another HRW report on the alleged Tula Toli Massacre of Rohingya (Aug. 30, and pretty close to Kha Maung Seik) explains "While there have been numerous reports of abuses committed by ARSA militants, Human Rights Watch has not been able to independently verify those accounts, in part because the Burmese government continues to deny independent human rights investigators and journalists access to northern Rakhine State, where most victims would be located." (that is, most victims of ARSA violence stay in the country, whereas the other side has more accessible people in the refugee camps telling their stories - sometimes under duress, after being kidnapped amidst a massacre.)
 * October 12, Maung Nu: Shaikh Azizur Rahman write in the Guardian "A group of Hindu women who crossed into neighbouring Bangladesh from Myanmar after surviving the attack claimed the Myanmar military carried out the massacre. However, when they were subsequently returned to Myanmar by security forces, they offered a different version of events, blaming Rohingya militants" (incorrect - this was said repeatedly inside the Hindu camp in Bagladesh). "Rohingya refugees have accused the Myanmar government of playing “dirty tricks” over the killings." (has a challenge to the story been sown? see Oct 3/4 above, removal of bodies)
 * October 18, Neither? Amnesty International report on alleged mass killings, all of Rohingy by government forces, highlinghts five large massacres of 12 or more people. Neither Maung Nu nor Kha Maung Seik is listed. That's not just a mix-up; all five they name use varying names for five other separately alleged massacres or identifiably different areas (in Tula Toli (given as Min Gyi), Chut Pyin, Chein Kar Li, Koe Tan Kauk, and Inn Din). It's not clear if these means anything, but it might reflect on some confusion or concern on their part about these two incidents.
 * November 14, Maung Nu: The Guardian "Fortify Rights and the Holocaust Museum, whose Simon-Skjodt centre works to prevent genocide around the world, singled out three villages as sites of massacres." Tula Toli, Chut Pyin, and Maung Nu. (not Kha Maung Seik)
 * November 25, Maung Nu: AP report
 * December 21, Maung Nu: AP report
 * Space for more reminders - apparently we're supposed to remember this story, and not the other one.