Survivor's firsthand testimony challenges AA’s denial of massacres, rapes
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Phyo/ Thet Paing(NP News)
A video is circulating on social media in which a Bengali girl accuses Arakan Army (AA) of committing mass murders and rapes in Htan Shouk Khan village, Buthidaung Township, Rakhine State, after she escaped those violent acts.
The 10-year-old girl said that only two of her 19 family members survived, and the rest of her family and villagers were killed by the AA.
“My name is Nur, also called Lima. I am 10 years old. My native place is Buthidaung Township. Out of 19 members in my family, only two of us survived. The other 17 were killed. They were killed by the AA group. Among those killed were my father, mother, younger sister, elder brother, uncle, grandfather, grandmother, relatives, and villagers. They were all killed right before my eyes,” the child said, sharing her firsthand account.
In addition, the child continued that the AA group had forcibly dragged girls into the school and raped them, and had stabbed to those those who refused and shouted. She wants justice for these incidents.
“The AA dragged girls into the school by force and raped them. Those who screamed were stabbed to death with knives. At that time, I was inside the school. I managed to escape both the mass killings and the rapes, and now I am in a refugee camp in Bangladesh. I want justice. I don’t want such genocidal killings to ever happen again in Rakhine,” she said.
Bengali activists also claimed that the AA ethnically murdered more than 600 local Bengali villagers from Htan Shouk Khan village, Buthidaung Township, but the AA denied these allegations.
Maj Gen. Zaw Min Tun, head of the Information Team of the National Defense and Security Council, stated that because the Bengalis had protested and objected to the AA’s actions, rejecting them in their desire for local peace and stability, the AA harboured resentment against them. He said the group then incited ethnic hatred and carried out unlawful mass killings and arson attacks against innocent residents of Htan Shouk Khan village. –