Satellite images show that dozens of Rohingya villages were burned the week Myanmar signed an agreement with Bangladesh to repatriate hundreds of thousands of refugees, Human Rights Watch has claimed. The evidence that villages were still being damaged as late as 2 December contradicted assurances by the Burmese government that violence had ceased and that the Rohingya could safely return to Myanmar, the watchdog said. Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement on 23 November to begin the process of repatriating some of the estimated 655,000 refugees who fled Myanmar in the past four months.

Burmese soldiers, police and militias have been accused of razing hundreds of villages, gang-raping women and children and killing indiscriminately, in what the US has labelled a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Burmese officials claim the reports of violence are exaggerated and it was largely perpetrated by Rohingya insurgents. The first repatriations under the agreement are due in January, a timetable that human rights groups say is unrealistic and could expose the Muslim minority group to continued persecution, internment or possible forced resettlement. HRW said satellite images showing signs of fires and building destruction in 40 villages in October and November were proof that the Rohingya could not yet safely return.(theguardian)…[+]