Myanmar army has burnt over 60 villages and destroyed more than 900 buildings of Rohingya Muslims in the country's western state, an international rights body said in a statement Friday.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) released new satellite imagery and sensory data showing that 62 villages and 948 buildings in Rakhine state were targeted by arson attacks between Aug. 25 and Sept. 14, 2017.
"Our field research backs what the satellite imagery has indicated - that the Burmese [Myanmar's] military is directly responsible for the mass burning of Rohingya villages…," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of the HRW.
"The United Nations and member countries should urgently impose measures on the Burmese government to stop these atrocities and end the forced flight of Rohingya from Burma," he demanded.
The rights group believed that the new target of the army is Maungdaw district and its neighboring villages.
"Satellite detection of multiple active fires on Sept. 11 and 13 suggest that villages in new areas of Maungdaw township are now being targeted for destruction."
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said that the Myanmar security forces' actions amount to "ethnic cleansing."
