Kha Maung Seik Massacre

Early on August 25, 2017, militants with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) raided the villages in the Kha Maung Seik tract and Ye Bew Kya (and perhaps Taung Ywar) in northern Myanmar, as part of their yearly offensive preceding their yearly claims of state repression. According to survivors and much evidence, the attackers robbed and abducted over 100 locals of the Hindu faith, massacring most of them.

By the now-accepted version of events, eight attractive young women were spared, along with their children or younger siblings, on condition they "converted" to Islam and became "wives" for the fighters. These women were taken to a refugee camp in Bangladesh and pressed to blame the Myanmar army and Buddhists for the killing of their husbands and family. But soon they were freed and telling another story. Based on their tips, some 45 of the bodies were found in two mass graves, with the remainder still unaccounted for in mid-2018.

ARSA denied the atrocity, and outside sources refused to verify it. In fact Human Rights Watch's South Asia director called the story originating with these women and other survivors "the Burmese government’s most recent allegations," and urged "Burma’s government should stop playing politics with the dead." Finally, a May, 2018 report by Amnesty International cited "new evidence" known to many for months to "reveal" that ARSA militants had killed as many as 99 Hindu civilians that day, as the Burmese government and the surviving women had said from the start.

Sources

Larson

Numerous local and international media reports are cited, linked, and combined by ACLOS member Adam Larson in external articles, including:

• Is the Maung Nu Massacre A Recycled Islamist Atrocity? Monitor on Massacre Marketing, Dec. 22, 2017 (first take)
• Kha Maung Seik Massacre Data Dump Monitor on Massacre marketing, Jan. 10, 2018
• Men in Black at Kha Maung Seik, A Massacre BY Rohingya? PART II of the series “Fake News & Massacre Marketing in the Rohingya Crisis" - The Indicter, February, 2018 issue (more advanced analysis)

Amnesty International report, May 2018

• Amnesty International: Myanmar: New evidence reveals Rohingya armed group massacred scores in Rakhine State 22 May 2018, 17:31 UTC
  • And derivative news reports like:
  • Report claims Rohingya militant group massacred nearly 100 Hindus - Joshua Berlinger, CNN, May 23, 2018
  • Todd Pitman, AP May 23: "ARSA could not be reached for comment on the Amnesty International report. A once-active Twitter account attributed to the group has not tweeted since January." (note: Amnesty will probably have asked for comment, but likely got no response; the report can only cite denials issued back in September)
• Responses:
  • Reuters Staff, May 25: “We categorically deny all of these unjustifiable and careless serious criminal accusations mentioned in the said report,” ARSA said in a statement signed by its leader Ata Ullah and posted on social media network Twitter late on Friday. ... Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Director, said the group “absolutely stands by the findings” of its investigation and urged Myanmar authorities to allow unfettered access to northern Rakhine for U.N. and other independent investigators.
  • PTI/Zee News May 25: Deeply concerned over the Amnesty International report on the alleged killing of Hindu villagers by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the US on Thursday said there was an urgent need for a credible and independent investigation into the human rights violations in Myanmar's restive Rakhine province ... Accountability for all those responsible ... all facts on the ground to fix accountability and provide justice to victims...
  • Arakan Times, May 26: "Hindu people are now giving authentic testimony of atrocities conducted by Myanmar security forces against them in Myanmar..." An extremely energized "AT reporter" gets the info quick and moves on, reliably, one random Hindu after another, three of them answer the same questions the same way, except for name and hometown. Did Muslims kill or oppress Hindus anywhere in Burma? They all know the answer: No, never. But all agree the army, Moghs (Buddhists, derogatory) and border police all "killed our Hindu people" everywhere. All of the Hindus in the camps fled freely with Muslim neighbors. These refugees have a peculiar brand of omniscience, but they must prove there was zero Muslim-Hindu friction anywhere in Burma, so Amnesty International are lying or duped. Interviewed: Nirandraw: "I am from NgaKhuya, Maungdaw." This is 25 km south of the area in question. - Reeta, from north Balukhali (not placed) - Kajal, 20 from Bolibazaar 22 km sse, south of Tula Toli. mapping

Other sources

Other sources of note include:

• Burma is Playing Politics with the Dead - Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watch, September 27, 2017