Satellite photos show fires are still burning at Rohingya villages in Myanmar, Amnesty says

Rights group Amnesty International has accused the military of starting fires in Myanmar’s Rakhine state to prevent Rohingya Muslim refugees from returning, citing new satellite images as evidence of the ongoing destruction.

At the same time, the country’s army chief blamed Rohingya militants for an explosion outside a mosque.

The unrest comes days after Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi declared that troops had ceased “clearance operations” in the border area that have forced more than 430,000 Rohingya refugees to flee for Bangladesh in under a month.

The army says it is targeting Rohingya militants who attacked police posts on August 25. But its operation has been so sweeping and brutal that the UN said it probably amounts to “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya Muslim minority, a group reviled by many in the mainly Buddhist country.

On Saturday, Myanmar’s commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing posted a statement on Facebook saying Rohingya militants planted a “home-made mine” that exploded in between a mosque and madrassa in northern Rakhine’s Buthidaung township on Friday.

The army chief accused the militants of trying to drive out around 700 hundred villagers who have remained in Mi Chaung Zay – an argument analysts have said makes little sense for a group that depends on the support of networks it has built across Rohingya communities.