REPORTS
Rohingya villages a battleground for military clashes
Myanmar Witness
16 Jan 2023
Report Published:
Clashes lead to civilian casualties in Buthidaung township
Key Event Details
Location of Incident: Gu Dar Pyin village area (ဂူဒါပြင်), Buthidaung township (ဘူးသီးတောင်မြို့နယ်), Rakhine state (ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်) [20.753842, 92.5451042].
Date/Time of Incident:
Multiple events between 25 September 2022 and 28 October 2022
Alleged Perpetrator(s) and/or Involvement:
Arakan Army (AA)
State Administration Council (SAC)
Conclusions:
Active fighting has occurred across Rohingya villages in the Gu Dar Pyin village area (ဂူဒါပြင်).
User-generated content (UGC) showing the fighting was analysed by Myanmar Witness.
Seven civilians were allegedly wounded, of which five were visible within the analysed UGC.
One civilian was allegedly killed. The deceased civilian was visible within the UGC analysed by Myanmar Witness.
Summary
In Rakhine state, clashes between armed forces have occurred in and around Buthidaung township, involving the Arakan Army (AA) and the State Administration Council (SAC). Across September and October, multiple claims of both combatant and civilian casualties were identified, alongside allegations of rape and other potential violations of international law. UGC showing the wounded and dead has been verified by Myanmar Witness.
Myanmar Witness has been able to verify:
The occurrence of fighting and explosions in Gu Dar Pyin between 25 September 2022 and 5 October 2022, verified through an analysis of UGC uploaded to social media, and satellite imagery.
Footage showing injured or killed civilians in Buthidaung township. Five of the seven allegedly injured and the one killed civilian are visible in the footage.
Background
Rakhine state has been the site of multiple tragedies in recent years, including the state riots between ethnic Rakhines and the Rohingya in 2012, and the Rohingya massacre in 2017.
Common power outages have caused the state to be relatively low on outgoing information and/or UGC. Despite this, in recent months the escalation of fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) and the State Administration Council (SAC) has led to increased attention on the region.
The Arakan army was founded alongside the United League of Arakan (ULA) as a mostly Buddhist membership group. They have been in conflict with the SAC since 2011. Its main goals are for self-determination for the multi-ethnic Arakanese population, and the restoration of Arakan’s lost sovereignty.
Since late November 2022, the AA and the SAC have held a largely maintained ceasefire agreement.
Map of Buthidaung locations identified as sites of conflict
Gu Dar Pyin (Gudam Fara) ဂူဒါပြင် [20.7533702 92.5451889]
Thayet Taung သရက်တောင် [20.7615299 92.5440826]
Kyauk Sar Taing (Su see) ကျောက်စာတိုင် (စုစည်း) [20.7494297 92.5286483]
Hpoe Khaung Chaung ဖိုးခေါင်ချောင်း [20.7396297 92.5642395]
Figure 1: Map of locations identified as sites of conflict. Note: The purple box refers to an often used point of reference throughout the geolocation within this report.
Timeline investigation
While conducting this investigation, Myanmar Witness identified disparate pieces of UGC and various allegations and claims, largely in reference to conflict in Buthidaung township. Through the processes of geolocation and chronolocation, Myanmar Witness has been able to build up a picture of the events which took place in Buthidaung township from September to October 2022. Fact-based assertions can be made on the location and time that these pieces of content were captured. All imagery has been checked for originality (i.e. if the content has been posted before with a different narrative/time/location).
25 September 2022
Gu Dar Pyin (ဂူဒါပြင်), Buthidaung
Verified
Gunfire reported by social media users in Gudam Fara and Thayet Taung. Gunshots can be heard in a video posted on social media, allegedly between the SAC in Thayet Taung and the AA in Gudan Fara. The following figures , taken from the video, show a mountainscape and radio towers which were geolocated, allowing Myanmar Witness to determine that the video was filmed at Hpoe Khaung Chaung. Another video shows a piece of metal stuck in a damaged tree. Whilst this video could not be geolocated, it has the same building type as Gu Dar Pyin.
Figure 2: Geolocation of UGC identified on social media. The mountainous background and 2 towers in the far right of the video gave useful reference points.
Verified
Video footage emerged showing people fleeing from Gu Dar Pyin itself. Faint smoke clouds are visible in the direction of Gu Dar Pyin. This footage has been verified using the following visible identifiers: the direction of the roofs, the radio tower, and the electricity building.
Figure 3: Geolocation of UGC sourced from social media. The people visible in the footage are moving away from Gu Dar Pyin.
1 October 2022
Pu Zun Chaung (ပုဇွန်ချောင်း), Buthidaung
[Graphic or explicit content]
Partially Verified
On and after 1 October, claims of the rape of a Rohingya woman emerged from a Buthidaung village. A video of the victim speaking about the incident was released online (source redacted due to privacy concerns). Supposedly, it was perpetrated by multiple AA soldiers, who have already been punished after admitting their actions. They were reportedly whipped and have 20 years of incarceration. Information related to the confessions and punishment can be found online (warning graphic).
3 October 2022
Kyauk Sar Taing (ကျောက်စာတိုင်), Buthidaung
Unverified
Reports of fighting between the AA and SAC in Kyauk Sar Taing.
5 October 2022
Gu Dar Pyin (ဂူဒါပြင်), Buthidaung
Verified
There were multiple mentions of fighting between the AA and the SAC in Gu Dar Pyin. Footage of fires was geolocated to the village. As with all mountainscape locations, finding the exact location where the picture was taken is often tricky, but it allows for the identification of the general area.
Figure 4: Geolocation of social media footage, again a part of the mountainscape seen on earlier geolocations.
6 October 2022
Gu Dar Pyin, Kyauk Sar Taing (ဂူဒါပြင်, ကျောက်စာတိုင်), Buthidaung
Unverified
Continued claims of fighting between the towns of Gu Dar Pyin and Taung.
7 October 2022
Gu Dar Pyin (ဂူဒါပြင်), Buthidaung
Unverified
Social media users reported that a landmine exploded in Gu Dar Pyin, injuring a Rohingya (source redacted due to privacy concerns).
8 October 2022
Gu Dar Pyin (ဂူဒါပြင်), Buthidaung
[Graphic or explicit content]
Verified/partially verified/unverified
Images of a deceased man, allegedly shot by the AA were shared on social media. Reports suggest that the victim was the uncle of a prominent Rohingya activist (two sources redacted due to privacy concerns).
13 October 2022
Kyaung Taung (ကျောင်းတောင်), Buthidaung
[Graphic or explicit content]
partially verified
Footage allegedly showing a member of the AA beating a Rohingya man (source redacted due to privacy concerns).
16 October 2022
Gu Dar Pyin (ဂူဒါပြင်), Kyauk Sar Taing (ကျောက်စာတိုင်), Buthidaung
Unverified
A social media user claimed that people were fleeing because of heavy weapon usage between the SAC and AA.
18 October2022
Sung Nibhil (Rohingya place name), Buthidaung
[Graphic or explicit content]
partially verified
Imagery of an injured (supposedly Rohingya) man, who was allegedly hit by a heavy weapon (source redacted due to privacy concerns).
19 October2022
U Hla Hpay (ဦးလှဖေ), Buthidaung
[Graphic or explicit content]
Partially verified
Images uploaded to social media of an injured/killed man (supposedly a Rohingya), who was allegedly shot by an unknown assailant (two sources redacted due to privacy concerns).
23 October 2022
Phoe Khaung Chaung (ဖိုးခေါင်ချောင်း), Buthidaung
Unverified
Reports that shots were allegedly fired at an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) settlement in Hpoe Khaung Chaung.
27 October 2022
Phoe Khaung Chaung (ဖိုးခေါင်ချောင်, း), Buthidaung
Unverified
Claims circulated online that a Rohingya was allegedly hit by artillery (sources redacted due to privacy concerns).
29 October 2022
Gu Dar Pyin (ဂူဒါပြင်), Buthidaung
[Graphic or explicit content]
partially verified
Graphic imagery of an injured man (supposedly a Rohingya) was posted on social media. The man was allegedly shot by the SAC (source redacted due to privacy concerns).
Victims and Destruction
As this timeline of events in Buthidaung demonstrates, the clashes between the AA and SAC led to multiple injuries and the fatality of at least one Rohingya man. This included:
the death of a prominent Rohingya teacher;
the rape of a woman; and
six people were claimed to be injured, of which four were visible within UGC.
The smokestack visible on 5 October and destruction seen from 25 September can not be seen on FIRMS or sentinel, indicating that the fighting didn’t lead to widespread fires. Despite this, the geolocated and verified imagery provided in the timeline does prove the existence of a fire/explosion in or near Gu Dar Pyin.
Additionally, the sound of gunshots on 25 September corroborates the claims of fighting in or near the town of Gu Dar Pyin.
Future monitoring
The conflict between the AA and SAC continued to escalate until the ceasefire was agreed in November 2022. Prior to the agreement, Buthidaung township was the site of many attacks and retaliations from both sides, particularly since August 2022. Rakhine state will continue to be monitored in an attempt to verify claims of attacks and conflict, especially those that impact local communities, including minorities such as the Rohingya.
Abbreviations
Arakan Army AA
Fire Information for Resource Management System FIRMS
Internally Displaced Person IDP
State Administrative Council SAC
United League of Arakan ALU
User-Generated Content UGC
