Myanmar: Arakan Army Helps in COVID19 Fight

May 5, 2020
rough, incomplete

Myanmar's Alleged Coronavirus Offensive
In 2017-18 I studied crimes alleged by and/or committed by the Islamist Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) allegations in Myanmar (Burma). The brutal, genocidal government and its security forces called "Tatmadaw" were accused of massacring Muslim (and Hindu) Rohingya civilians in the western state of Rakhine, torching villages, and chasing the "Bengalis" back to Bangladesh, after a deadly ARSA offensive on 30 police stations on August 24.

The government of Myanmar was historically run by the Tatmadaw, but since 2008 includes a civilian part headed by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Once hoped to be a Western puppet against the Tatmadaw, it seems she "went native" and sides with them, now joining them as a target of the regime-change machine. Myanmar is one of those nations like Syria that's been pre-judged as guilty for everything new, on the precedent of all allegations before that being accepted. And ARSA - like the "Free Syrian Army" - was a Western-favored "resistance" force in another state-genocide narrative, until their public reputation was thoroughly ruined; evidence of their hideous, deceptive, and genocidal nature could not be denied. ARSA forces animated by religious hate hacked up Hindu babies, 100 villagers total, at Kha Maung Seik, on day one of their military offensive. (covered best by me, and later by Amnesty International) They lodged false stories blaming the Tatmadaw, but unusually, the stories failed once the women they had kidnapped as "wives" were freed to tell the truth. And so ARSA is blamed for the only clearly proven massacre of civilians in that whole affair. The reality of 2017's other allegation has never been properly re-assessed in that light.

Two years later, the same Rakhine state is again rife with violence initiated by separatists , but now the government faces the primarily Rakhine Buddhist "Arakan Army." They claim to be enemies of the hated ARSA terrorists, but they almost seamlessly took the lead as "resistance" champions in Rakhine state just as ARSA's image was ruined and they faded to the sidelines. So they're on the same side vis-a-vis trying balkanize Myanmar, and they even work like a wrestling tag-team, or in agreed shifts.

One might understand why Burmese officials see a link there, but AA and ASA both deny it, it would make a good smear, and I can't prove they're right. The concept is one I mean to write on in another post, but for now, we just need to know this Arakan Army existed as far back as 2009, but only got big and bold and well-equipped in mid-late 2018, and emerged with major attacks by January, 2019 at the latest. Myanmar designated them a terrorist organization only on March 23, 2020, after more than a year of increasing violence, contested as always.

All this would have been just barely complicated by what seems to be a mild, well-contained outbreak of coronavirus. The 161 confirmed cases and a mere six related fatalities (as of May 5) is probably an extremely incomplete count, however, and the World Health Organization had been working on getting a wider reading of the COVID19 crisis there, including in the embattled Rakhine state. Both sides publicly agreed to a ceasefire and to facilitate the WHO's work, but it was badly complicated, on April 20, by the first armed attack on their workers, killing one of them. Arakan Army blames the Myanmar military for the shooting, and the government blames Arakan Army. Most credible sources have reserved judgment, but are most likely to side with the designated terrorists or, as others say, the resistance to Myanmar's brutal, genocidal government. But let's consider this alleged regime crime in light of its alleged strategy so far.

CNN, April 30: The departing UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee took a last shot at Myannmar, accusing them "of targeting ethnic Rakhine Buddhist civilians during recent clashes with the Arakan Army (AA), ... houses had been burned, a monastery was attacked and people had been arrested and tortured. "And then we find bodies that have been decapitated, these are Rakhine people," Lee said." Later, the article says "The Arakan Army is also carrying out attacks on civilians, Lee says. "We have proof that they have kidnapped local parliamentarians," Lee said. "They also have kidnapped people and civilians," likely including fellow Rakhine people who support the government. But the beheaded ones, she's pretty sure, are the ones by government forces, on account of being Rakhine. "I am calling the situation crimes against humanity and war crimes. These are the highest, the most heinous and gravest crimes of international law," she added.

Just then, on May 4, emerges supposed visual proof - a Tatmadaw soldier (by the uniform, presumably issued, not stolen) holding a man's severed head and a knife, and smiling. The picture says that's an "Arakanese ( Rakhine) villager" beheaded after soldiers detained, just for looking for food in the forest. "Burmese soldiers behavior like ISIS terrorists!" For what it's worth, the victim was clearly shot in the head, probably before the mutilation of his body. The image was clearly taken by a willing cohort, and then ... some AA opposition guys in their own uniforms must have found it on a soldier they just then killed, as luck would have it. That's possible, of course, but I'm far from convinced. I'll put this up (you don't need to see the head) and ask if anyone in Myanmar can say is that a specific soldier who can be held to account or, if not, what evidence can be shared to help us understand?

So it's already accepted they're hacking up Rakhine Buddhists now, as they have with Muslim Rohingya in the past. And now COVID19 is "emboldening the Tatmadaw," Lee said, complaining they've put up roadblocks that only keep people from hospitals. "If they have these additional powers in the name of enforcing or preventing the spread of the pandemic" this can only give them "a greater, higher level of power to do what they've done always in the past few decades, but in a more severe and horrific manner." She's thinking they'll enforce the virus' spread, to genocide the Rakhines and the remaining Rohingya as they always have before. Some say Lee has a bias against the Myanmar government. They're clearly correct. She sounds much like an anonymous "human rights activist" in Myanmar said “I assume Myanmar army ... wants our people die by the coronavirus infection whereas they believe massive Rakhine population are infected and then killed will make the army to win the war against AA as Aung San Suu Kyi has ordered the army to crash it.” [AN1]

I've been arguing how serious this pandemic is, challenging ill-informed dismissals and conspiracy theories about it. But as dangerous as it is, it is overblown in many minds, and it's not much in the line of a deadly tool of genocide, as people are suggesting. And the evidence that Suu Kyi and the Tatamdaw are behind it, as we'll see, is rather unconvincing.

Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch said "Myanmar's military, and its accomplices in Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government, are taking advantage of the world's distraction with Covid-19 to press forward with military atrocities to try and break the back of the Arakan Army resistance, and they don't care who they kill or maim to do it." [CNN]
Thei CEO Kenneth Roth agreed, the same day saying "The Myanmar military seems to calculate: what better time to commit war crimes than while a global pandemic distracts everyone. Having already used murder, rape and arson to chase ~700,000 Rohingya Muslims, it can target the ~600,000 who remain in Myanmar." [Roth]

Next in that strategy - while the world is distracted by COVID19 crisis and the WHO-led response, they should ... be the first state to murder some WHO workers leading that response, knowing they'll be blamed and have no luck passing it off. The same CNN article notes more blandly "On April 20, a World Health Organization (WHO) ​driver of a UN vehicle was killed and a government official in the car was severely injured after their vehicle came under attack when they were transporting Covid-19 samples." [CNN] They don't say who did it, and no one comments on how that fits, because it doesn't fit very well at all. They shoot their own official and a WHO driver working ON the crisis everyone's distracted BY? That inserts you on the world stage, the opposite of the strategy these interventionists have imagined. Robertson knows the answer: the regime thugs just "don't care who they kill or maim." They're unfailingly evil and, wherever it's convenient, they're also illogical inept, whatever.

Neither side in the Rakhine conflict stands to benefit from such a senseless act, except by blaming the other side, and that can't work unless they can make their story stick. Naypyidaw has proven bad at this. Arakan Army, as the championed "resistance" group of the moment, is the one with a rational motive to try a stunt like this. That's far from proof they did it, but it shouldn't be ignored, especially if other evidence points the same way - as it does.

Incident Review
The following is a decent analysis of the incident, with perhaps more detail to emerge and add later.

Myanmar Times, 21 April: "A driver for the United Nation’s World Health Organization has died from his wounds after armed men fired at a marked UN vehicle in Rakhine State on the evening of April 20. The driver, identified as Pyae Sone Win Maung, was one of the two people injured when the vehicle they were riding was attacked near Ra Maung bridge in Minbya township."

“The WHO colleague was driving a marked UN vehicle from Sittwe to Yangon transporting COVID-19 surveillance samples in support of the Ministry of Health and Sports,” it added. “The United Nations is seeking further information on the circumstances of the incident.” The vehicle came from the Rakhine capital, Sittwe, and was on its way to Yangon when the incident occurred, according to a report of the Ministry of Information on its website. It was carrying medical workers, including two local staff of the World Health Organization, who were taking nasal and throat swab samples for COVID-19 tests from several townships in the state. The vehicle crashed into a ditch, injuring the driver and a health official identified as U Aung Myo Oo. The Ministry of Information blamed the attack on the Arakan Army (AA)." [MT]

An Arakan Army account starts with an unprovoked army assault in the area lasting all day on April 20, killing a village and wounding others. A map shows the location of clashes in the forest where the road bends south. Implicitly, the area was then cleared of AA fighters, and is shown ringed with 3 mobile army posts/camps. "The Myanmar Army suffered some losses during their offensive assaults. There was only sporadic fighting after 16:00 pm." [AA1]

Side-note: One AA supporter posted a video to argue the government and/or WHO violated transport rules in a suspicious set-up: "the Sittwe-angoon highway in the Rakhine state is a death road in the war zone." The only safe route was by air, he argues, but they sent the team into a death zone they alone had access to - that late in the day, allegedly.

AA account, continued: "At 17:40 pm, the WHO car passed the tatmadaw's checkpoint coming fom Sittwe, given permission to cross the Ra-Maung bridge and continue south. then, as villains do, "the Myanmar soldiers who gave the permit opened gunfire behind the car and other Burmese troops from left and right side of the road also shot the car. ...

"As a result, those two staffs were critically injured. In addition, their car engine stopped by the roadside." It has been for a long time that the Burmese troops have stationed in the factory by the roadside. This incident happened in the area of the Myanmar Military base. ... the incident is totally unrelated to our organization. This is a deliberate and heinous act of the Myanmar Army." Shooting came "from the Ra-Maung bridge Myanmar Military Checkpoint, other Myanmar troops from left and right side of the road and the Myanmar Military stronghold stationed in the factory by the roadside" are those all really active posts, that were not overrun in the day's "offensive"? AA says or implies as much, but we shouldn't blindly trust them.

"The bullet shot by the Myanmar Army hit the body of U Pyae Sone Win Maung. … At the time we rescued U Pyae Sone Win Maung, he got shocked by over bleeding. According to follow-up news, ...he passed away of gunshot wounds at midnight at the Minbya hospital." The injured passenger is named as U Aung Myo Oo. Myanmar Times reported the car held "medical workers, including" two from WHO and the injured survivor, a "health official identified as U Aung Myo Oo" That suggests there were others, but they aren't mentioned explicitly, or reported as missing. That could be nothing but unclear wording, or an important clue. (The AA is known to kidnap soldiers, officials, etc.)
"If the staff with gunshot wounds and the places on the car hit by the bullets are checked, it can be clearly seen that the injuries and damages were caused by the bullets of the Myanmar Army." [AA1]

"However, Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, a spokesman of the Tatmadaw, said autopsy on the victim showed the bullets that hit him are 7.62 mm in diameter and 25 mm in length, which are not standard issue for government troops. "Bullets are different from those used by the Tatmadaw. They are from M-23 gun used by AA. It has been tested by gun experts," he said." [MT] I can't verify this claim, but it is more specific and more logical than the AA's tedious repetitions of their total innocence in the face of mindless evil.

And somehow, Arakan Army admits they were first on the scene, albeit some time after - as they tell it: "The Arakan Army saw a well-marked United Nations vehicle by the roadside soon after this incident happened and rescued those two WHO staffs pulling out of the car. After that, the Arakan Army provided and treated them with First Aid and we transferred them to Minbya Hospital with help of local residents there." [AA1]

Pyidaungsu Institute on Facebook: "About an hour after the shooting, the injured WHO personnel were treated and taken to a safe place by the AA." [PI]

So ... the Tatmadaw ran this area, 3 mobile posts and a base within meters, surrounded and shot the WHO team off the road, but then never moved in to arrest them or to finish them off, move the car, or anything. They just left the men - one of their own health officials and a WHO driver - stranded and bleeding, in an area the Tatmadaw was known to control, for about an hour before AA was somehow able to access the scene again, get around those posts, to witness the wreck and do their good guy thing. No one shot them as they rescued the witnesses, only one of whom died. Did they drive them out on the road, or carry them through the woods? Not explained yet, that I've seen, and I suspect the latter would be mentioned if it happened.

Pyidaungsu Institute: “The incident happened around 5 pm,” said Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun of the Tatmadaw News Agency. He said that the Ramadan Bridge was crossing over from Sittwe and that the left side shot at the hill. The Tatmadaw Bridge has been repeatedly fired by Tatmadaw troops and vehicles. ” Lt. Col. Zaw Min Tun said that the army troops were on the way to the hill, which was throwing the WHO car at night, and that some of the soldiers were injured." (translation brush-up ...) [PI]

AA notes they were first to break the story around 11PM, hinting at a cover-up. They were telling the world just 4 hours after they claim to have stumbled upon the scene, and just an hour before the diver passed away. - But as they note, the government and its media outlets delayed reporting the incident (and/or learning about it?) until after AA broke the story. It was around 1 am on the 21st when "the state-own MRTV broadcasted it with misinformation and full of lies," with the rest following quickly. "We strongly condemn ... misinformation and smear campaign to accuse ... the ULA/AA. Such smear campaign by state-owned information agency is not only trying to cover up war crimes committed by the Myanmar Army but also working in tandem with the Myanmar Army’s propaganda machine to impose the blames of the Myanmar Army on our organization."

At the scene, they took this image (faint AA logo stamped in red), looking like a screen grab from a video I wouldn't mind seeing.

The vehicle damage is minimal - I'm not sure if any bullet holes are clearly visible. The diver's side window is gone, seeming shattered away, and it's the driver who was hit in the upper body and died. The scene is of some interest. It's non-descript stretch of road, trees on either side, giving way to rocks and dirt on the left, as at a side-road or driveway. In the graphic below, I marked in orange 3 spots that seem like possible matches: one is inside AA's given area and might be it. But otherwise, the middle one seems a slightly better guess (four much smaller trees in the foreground?). Other small details that don't pin it down play into that (e.g. a mound and white pole in the mid-distance on the left? There's a mound not far from the middle spot, possibly with such a pole.). The other spot is what they say, and it's at the deeper part of that Sherwood forest these Robin Hoods can just pop out of.

The angle of sunlight says there is none, because it's past sunset. As I looked it up, that was at 18:37 local time that day. I'd say this is at least a few minutes after that, about 6:45 pm or a bit later.The incident is agreed as around 5pm (rounded) or more exactly, a bit after 5:40. Visually, this is about an hour later, like they say. The car might be facing west towards the glowing horizon after sunset, with the brightest point maybe reflecting directly off the left passenger-side mirror, so car facing is a bit SW, just like this stretch of road runs.

So they may give the right time and place, and it doesn't help much when that seems before any army people got to the victims, and right next to where AA had been until some clash earlier that day, and would return to afterwards. In-between, before, and after, they'd have us believe, "It has been for a long time that the Burmese troops have stationed in the factory by the roadside," and we can see how they had those woods surrounded. That was all meant to prove who did the shooting, but then the logical culprits seem to have at least as much access, and perhaps even control of the area.

A Second Incident
In case anyone was unclear on their motives, the Tatmadaw repeated a similar stunt in the same area the following afternoon, and AA again has access. On the 21st, Arakan News reported the "second time COVID-19 related vehicle was shot in Myanmar," this time a truck "carrying antiseptic solutions" (actually pest control - should contain pesticides, unless Competitive Pest Services had branched out during the cisis). This happened "near the Ra-Maung Bridage" and "on the same parameter where WHO’s staff shot and killed and wounded the government health worker on April 20"

The driver again was killed "on the sport" (U Yin Yin Maung), and the "codriver" or passenger (Maung Hin Htet) again was just wounded, and taken to Minbya hospital. They don't say what happened with the truck's cargo.

They say this one was headed the other way, from Rangoon towards Sittwe, but that seems wrong, judging by the provided photo; the sun is moderately high, early afternoon, so coming from the southwest. See how all shadows run to the left, roughly parallel to the road's edge, angling back towards it a bit. The truck is pointed into the sun, so unless it did a U-turn in the cash, the driver's side that was again hit worst was again the side facing the woods AA seems to have constant access to.

photo: regular paramedics, or does AA have its own equivalent of the "White Helmets"? I suppose they're the ones making sure the patient has a mask and gloves on, like they do. The tree it hit seems to have some wooden slat structure leaning against it - part of some kind of amateur roadblock?

The head of local human rights organization that monitors COVID 19 outbreak in Rakhine Said, “I assume Myanmar army is intentionally attacking the COVID 19 related vehicles and health workers because the army wants our people die by the coronavirus infection whereas they believe massive Rakhine population are infected and then killed will make the army to win the war against AA as Aung San Suu Kyi has ordered the army to crash it.” He continues, “When they are losing the war in Rakhine, they target all kinds of civilians for revenge including the WHO staffs and now again over attack on Antiseptic Solution supply vehicle.” He does not want to publish his name for security reason.

Arakan Jihad Documentary

August 11, 2018

ARAKAN - ANCIENT BUDDHIST KINGDOM, ENDANGERED BY JIHAD
Jihad Threatens the Indigenous Buddhists, Hindus, and Tribal Minorities of the Land
A film by Rick Heizman, in 4 parts, 720 quality.

part 1 https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/i-9PF8GTp/A  

part 2a https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/i-dg8SfKc/A

part 2b https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/i-M2pkg2V/A

part 3 https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/i-pbVdXqx/A

From the end of part 2B, some Rohingya/Bengali kids showing off their peaceful learning, not with real guns yet - they have to be about 15 first:

Again the world heard and accepted a tale of persecution against Innocent Sunni Muslims by Buddhist chauvinists. Again, many decided Wahabbism is not the problem here - it's Buddhists, Hindus, Shi'ites, Alawites, Secular Sunnis, secular anyone, Druze, Christians, Jews, Atheists, Russians, Persians, Kurds, Armenians, Black People, and whoever else, in what the Wahabbis consider a global Satanic conspiracy against their one true faith. Do we really buy this? No. So why do we pick and choose where we believe some part of the story? Ah yes - where doing that would further an existing geostrategic objective of the ruling elites.

For more context, see (my own work):
On-site: http://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/search/label/Myanmar

3-part series at The Indicter
http://theindicter.com/fake-news-and-massacre-marketing-in-the-rohingya-crisis-part-i-questioning-the-massacre-stories-1/
http://theindicter.com/men-in-black-at-kha-maung-seik-a-massacre-by-rohingya-part-ii-of-the-series-fake-news-massacre-marketing-in-the-rohingya-crisis/
http://theindicter.com/other-massacre-stories-that-fall-apart-part-iii-and-conclusion-of-the-series-fake-news-massacre-marketing-in-the-rohingya-crisis/

On Social Media and "Anti-Rohingya Hate Speech"

March 17, 2018

Yanghee Lee, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, recently said "Facebook has now turned into a beast" for allowing the promotion of violence and/or hate against Muslims in Myanmar (BBC News). The mass-displacement, burning of villages, and man killings alleged last year against the so-called Rohingya (hereafter Rohingya Mulsims) * A soon-to-be released report contained the details leading the commission to raise pressure on the social media giant to better enforce safety.

Before addressing the grave human rights problems UN people and Facebook are struggling with ... some overlooked context before we take one step forward. There's an optional step back afterwards, but I have to briefly take us here again.
* (they speak a dialect of Bengali they call Rohingya, but there are also Hindus, etc. who speak the same dialect but are not the subject of dispute).
 
The Real Beast in Myanmar
There were many unprovoked massacres of Rohingya civilians alleged, but only one killing of ten men at Inn Din has been proven and admitted and stands as an undeniable violation. These men are claimed as civilians, but the supporting stories contradict each other and they were most likely militants. Other militants, if not the same, had just provoked the local Buddhists by murdering one, then overrunning the area, looting homes as villagers hid in the monastery. Later, after some clashes and the arrest of 10 suspected fighters, some soldiers let the slain farmer's sons strike some blows. The Mullah or religious leader among the captives was beheaded. It was a brutal and illegal act, but a provoked one, and may literally be the only such thing soldiers or Buddhist civilians participated in.  (see here),

Many other alleged killings remain just alleged, lacking not just a government admission but also lacking bodies or other evidence, and often shifting and illogical stories that can hardly all be true. (see some details covered in various posts here and in part 3 of my Indicter series). Several hundred to 1,800 or more civilians were reportedly butchered just the village of Tula Toli on August 30, as supposedly witnessed by some 70+ survivors and witnesses, but with no one filming it, and with clashing details. They even lodged clashing false reports about the real killings at Inn Din. Their Maung Nu massacre happened on two different days, etc. The record is a real mess. A while back I issued a sort of challenge to the media on "fake news" and the Myanmar alleged ethic cleansing. (I mean to do more follow-up, but didn't really expect any response).

Considering truth is hard to know but sometimes discernable upon investigation of the evidence ... there was exactly one proven massacre of clear civilians, and close to 100 of them. And this one that we know happened, this tip of a possible iceberg ... was by Rohingya Islamist militants. Declared infidels, the Hindus were kidnapped from their homes near Kha Maung Seik in the far north, just hours after ARSA attacks overran security forces in the area. Men, women, babies, and elderly alike were marched off and slaughtered with blades and dumped in narrow, deep pits hidden in the brush. 93 of them were either verified as killed or remain missing and presumed dead.

The Muslim militants also spared but kidnapped eight pretty women aged 15-25, whom they converted them by force to Islam and started marrying off to each other. Under this captivity, the women were held briefly at the Kutupalong refugee camp  in Bangladesh, and made to tell false stories under the threat that their children's throats would be slashed if they didn't. But this didn't work very well, and the police were called in soon. The Muslim men in the group fled, and the women, along with 10 children spared along with them, were rescued and eventually sent back to Myanmar. At first chance in the camp and ever since, they've told this story, not the one the Muslims had them say.
That's my reading, stated as fact, like so many others just do. I usually try to avoid it; dealing in likely facts that millions are trained to disagree with, you don't get far just swearing it's true. But here I'll go out on a limb and say that is what happened. For reasons, see my pretty powerful article on this amazing story at the Indicter. The following photo and quote is a good summary, from a detailed report in a government-aligned newspaper, Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM).

The GNLM report adds that people speaking unknown foreign languages were involved, with one of these co-leading the operation, in which perhaps 500 fighters were involved. They shouted Allahu Akbar and called the massacre their celebration of the feast of Eid al-Adha. Local co-leader "Norulauk" reportedly told the victims before they died the area was now "our territory. … we will murder Buddhists and all of you who worship the statues made of bricks and stones.” But he also made the central error of letting those eight women and ten children to live to eventually report these details of an ethnic cleansing campaign.

Human Rights Watch was watching and had a response on September 27, as half the victims' bodies were found. Their South Asia Director, Meenakshi Ganguly, penned the closest to an HRW statement on this horrific violation, claiming that “no one has been able to independently verify the Burmese government’s most recent allegations,” which amounted to their “playing politics with the dead.” But these women called in their stories from the refugee camp in Bangladesh, telling the authorities where to find the bodies tucked away in three mass graves that seem designed to stay hidden. You don't need independent confirmation of the claim when there's an independent source for it. But HRW had no more to say, being far too busy issuing detailed reports promoting similar claims from the other side.

This isn't the only point but the best introductory one, a rare glimpse allowed by that unusual decision to leave some witnesses alive. In most Islamist false-flag massacres none of the real victims is left alive to tell the truth. Yet the chance for a rare view was happily bypassed by the most "credible" voices. Reading the news, many will have heard of this amazing story either barely or not at all. Isn't that odd? An aborted fake version of the Kha Maung Seik massacre was blamed on Buddhists dressed up to look like ARSA, attacking Muslims and Hindus alike, and was written in on three different days in various sub-versions. That got just as much attention as the true story did, before the whole mess was left unresolved and buried.

Dealing with Sunni extremists, as ARSA and its supporters clearly are, we should expect a lot of deception here, and perhaps no truth underneath it. Myanmar government might literally be telling it like it is, however many voices in the echo chamber here have said otherwise. HRW may never let themselves see it, but the evidence is pretty overwhelming anyway - if there's one "beast" to worry about in Myanmar it's Saudi-style Wahabbi extremist Sunni Islamism.

Every baby is born pure, but some Muslim-born ones go to a Saudi-style school or learn it at home, and wind up joining Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, or the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, depending where they live. These often wind up butchering infidels and framing other infidels for it in lies to yet other infidels - information jihad. They might consider everyone who watches any news or any video screen to be an infidel.

So ... one should proceed with caution, but hardly anyone vested with "credibility" does so.  That may be because - as in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and elsewhere, they pick the same enemy states the West already wanted to take out, In a team effort, these regimes are toppled or crippled at every chance. The Islamists get away with their part and even get rewarded, sometimes with a new nation like Kosovo (or Arakan?) created to house them. And so they keep doing it, accelerating greatly in recent years. Just in the last decade millions have died often horrible deaths from this, and others live under inhumane captivity by or control of these poisonous people. If someone could claim control of or steer it, this global network of Sunni extremism would definitely be a "weapon of mass destruction" in itself.

There's no hint the UN's human rights people, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, etc. are on the lookout for this, even ignoring glaring inconsistencies in the stories they lodge, as they maintain a posture of firm belief. That's a serious problem.

And the Islamists with their medieval view use social media to spread their hate, considering it a religious duty. Lee said "I'm afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended." Having seen some of the false-flag Islamist massacres successfully promoted there to demonize their enemies (notably Alawites in Syria), with or without shocking gory images of the Islamists' own work ... she's right but backwards. Islamism is the beast, and  social media is its pet.

Social Media's Role in the Conflict
This one proven massacre of 93 Hindu civilians at Kha Maung Seik was not planned by Buddhists on Facebook. It was planned by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and allied terrorists, in various and mostly unknown ways.

ARSA's supreme leader "AtaUllah" sent orders on August 24, using WhatsApp, to prepare for attacks on security forces. An August 28 order to burn down Buddhist villages was also transmitted this way. (see International Crisis Group's December report). More secret orders like those to carry out massacres of infidels would probably be done by runners or perhaps coded communications, and not publicly on any social network. The Aug. 28 message sounds like the kind of thing they would mainly communicate this way.

WhatsApp at least should be taken to task for letting militants use their service to order illegal attacks on security forces, and incitements to burn villages. I'm not sure if they have been called out for this, or closed the terrorist leader's account or anything... worth checking into. I gather WhatsApp is more hands-off in their approach than the more discussed sites like Facebook.
But these don't seem to come up as an issue in the news articles, as if Rohingya Muslims - as the persecuted ones here - could never have nefarious purposes to use social media. I mean, isn't the only issue here those genocidal Buddhist? So what to do about them?

IF the UN investigators have Facebook messages of Buddhists or others coordinating mob violence attacks on Rohingya muslim civilians, or openly inciting such attacks or issuing threats - that would be evidence of a problem and would justify counter-action. That's direct criminal activity, like ARSA's WhatsApp messages of August 24 and 28 at least. But nothing of the sort from the other side is mentioned so far.

The Washington Post's Annie Gowen heard from non-Muslim refugees in Sittwe in November, who "said they were afraid to return home because they feared the Rohingya insurgents whose attacks on police posts in their villages precipitated the crisis." One was an older Hindu woman whos entire family was butchered. Another was a Buddhist college student who "recalled that one of his best school friends, a Rohingya, stopped speaking to him after the 2012 violence and later left the country. About three months ago, the former friend messaged him ominously on Facebook, “We are going to kill you.” 

This sort of message would be well outside their rules, and may have been punished. (that's around mid-August, maybe before the August 25 ARSA offensive, so not backlash over the following ethnic cleansing allegations. It might be from an insider planning the violence.) It's quite possible there are similar messages, private and public, from the Buddhist side. Make no mistake, Buddhists are humans. The monks might tend to be above the fray, but certain "ultra-nationalist" ones like the infamous Wirathu have taken pretty ugly stances, which by the way are not supported universally among Buddhists. Regular folks caught up in disputes and violence can get ugly, whatever the religion.  The Inn Din massacre shows they can be physically violent, and it would be no surprise if even more would express it just in dangerous words.

But unless someone can show otherwise, some person's opinion has no relevance to someone else's alleged actions.

Or is it Thoughtcrime They're After?
But it's not clear this sort of direct threat or public hazard is what the UN investigators speak of. It could be they're taking "hate speech" more widely as ideas and speech that contribute to feelings against - specifically - Rohingya Muslims. It would seem fair enough to many, considering the alleged genocide they're going through, a special "never again" speech emergency. Such ideas  do complicate the public perception of the moment's championed victims. It would class as thoughtcrime in the totalitarian future of George Orwell's 1984.

There are troubling signs that the UN commission's thinking here is based on such political motivates.  The BBC News report cites Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee as saying "We know that the ultra-nationalist Buddhists have their own Facebooks and are really inciting a lot of violence and a lot of hatred against the Rohingya or other ethnic minorities." Actually inciting violence would be an issue, but "inciting hatred" ...
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43385677

That phrase just doesn't sound grammatically correct to me, and sounds politicized and vaguely newspeak. One incites violence, or maybe a panic, or the burning of Buddhist villages (from latin to excite, or stir-up usually, something active). Hatred can incite violence, but might need anger added as a spark. Hate is a longer-term state-of-mind thing, not an episode. I think of it as growing, being taught or learned, etc. Nonetheless, "inciting hatred" is a perceived problem people are tackling lately, as if it's a disease you can get from a single glance, or a fire you'll burst into instantly. (see below). It's a semantical issue. Let's jot get hung up on it.

The UN mission's chairman, Marzuki Darusma is cited by the BBC as explaining "that social media had "substantively contributed to the level of acrimony" amongst the wider public, against Rohingya Muslims." He added "hate speech is certainly, of course, a part of that," but some of it was other kinds of speech that also contribute to acrimony, or ill-will against some people and not others. For some reason this is worth a report and a news conference.

And they don't seem to care that it cut both ways. By the accepted reports 1,800 Muslim civilians were butchered at Tula Toli on August 30. With no provocation whatsoever, soldiers and Buddhist mobs surrounded the villagers on the beach, massacred the men, burned babies alive, raped women after killing their children in front of them, etc. Even Buddhist monks took part in it, as claimed. It's still supported by almost zero reliable evidence, but widely accepted as fact at places like the UN. But it would show some very serious hate from some very non-peaceful people.

True or not, might this kind of claim getting repeated all over not lead to bad feelings - and even unjust and poorly-aimed violence - against Buddhists, these satanic butchers claiming a religion of peace?

I didn't find many examples of actual violence against Buddhists outside of the battle zone itself, but I didn't have time to dig far. In Bangladesh, Mizzima.com reported in mid-September, "there have been some minor incidents targeting the Buddhist community" and authorities were stepping up security around their temples, fearing violence by radical Muslims in "revenge" for events in Myanmar. It was a real concern, and the information riling them up came largely by social media. It's been worse in the past; violent attacks by Muslims in Malaysa killed several Burmese Buddhist guest workers in 2013-14 over similar but much tamer allegations at the time, leading the rest to quit work and go back home in fear. (Heizman)

This year it seems oddly restrained and the issue is not so much violent but other possibly unfair backlash; protest, sanctions tarnished image for Myanmar's Buddhist community, and susceptibility to believing more of the same kind of accusations next time around. There's now more yet acrimony against Buddhists from Muslims and from the broader public. It's based on things they've heard and keep hearing, repeated with no skepticism on social media, in the mainstream news, and even by world leaders and UN officials.

These stories must be told in order to even be considered. But from there they should be considered - critically - which they aren't. And true or not, logical or physically possible or not, they most definitely add to vengeful attitudes against Buddhists. They even - dare I say it? - "incite hatred" against them. (having dared to say it, it still sounds stupid. This is clearly teaching hatred (or at least ... disdain, disrespect) by repetition, not inciting it like one would a fistfight).

But the UN mission doesn't seem worried about that trend even as they add to the list of villainy: the Burmese Buddhists try to deny their crimes and spread their hate to the wider world using the Internet. Is it really even-handed universal justice these activists are after?

Otherwise, this could be a political exercise operating under a thin pretense. If so, the consideration at heart would probably be just this: all this talk - especially the true and/or convincing talk - is complicating  their desired picture. It portrays deceptive jihadist mass-murderers where the Western-led "world community" shows more persecuted innocents in need of salvation. All these carefully lodged and accepted ethnic cleansing claims need a clear bad guy, and it has to be the government targeted for sanctions or worse in another regime-change type of campaign.*

* ("crazy thoughts" side-note: This is apparently how the "world community" closes down competitors and eventually absorbs more member states, so as to more resemble the actual entire world, all finally working on one agreed script. This is supposed to ensure peace at last, but war is too profitable and would continue, against member states accused of increasingly petty violations of their membership agreements, etc. So I advise nations and people - don't give in to this possible future. Unipolar power achieved by force and deception is not the way to go.)

How The UN Folks Identified the Problem with Social Media
The UN investigators cite some evidence to explain the problem with hate speech in Myanmar. Just what all that is remains unclear until the report comes out, but the BBC repost says "The interim report is based on more than 600 interviews with human rights abuse victims and witnesses" and other things like "satellite imagery, photographs and video footage taken within Myanmar."

So they again found that a bunch of places really were burned, saw the same weak video evidence and heard strong verbal claims already repeated so widely. They found that "some were burned alive in their homes" etc. etc.  They will hear about the Tula Toli rape huts with, and the carted-away bodies from Maung Nu everyone saw but no one filmed, etc.. They will take the chance to remind us once again of all that and how they totally believe the stories behind it, and totally blame the government and the local Buddhists for a campaign of unprovoked ethnic cleansing against innocent Muslims. Reasonably, in that light, they'll demand accountability. Again, according to my analysis, it's all likely bogus.

And now they can add that the people they blame - Burmese Buddhists, in general - use Facebook to express their dislike of the target group. Surely they can cite some posts including racial slurs, some expressed views in favor of locking the "Bangalis" out, or even a few personal opinions that the "kalar" should all be killed, or even a few direct death threats.

The investigators will probably not be able to show a link from those posts or people to any of the alleged violence and torching of villages last year. It's probably a bunch of lumping-together and blaming the whole community for a spirit thought to underpin all that. And it's partly a show of trying to help the Buddhists become less genocidal, a humanistic but condescending gesture - in lieu of harder options they're also pursuing.

With probably zero relevant connections discovered, Lee and Darusma and the rest the would have us believe somewhere in there is a serious problem contributing to real ethnic cleansing, and Facebook especially needs to solve it by silencing more content than it already is. Well I'm surely not convinced. It seems more like they're acting instead on the political course described above. If so, one can only hope Facebook refuses to play along and sticks to a spirit of fairness and truth.

What Facebook is Doing and What We Could Do
Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other social media sites and platforms are private property, allowed to run as the owners see fit. But they've also become so prevalent that they seem like public spaces. All the social media sites agree in embracing the same basic values you'd hope to find there - free speech, public safety, other things in various order. But it's a little ambiguous what to expect or try and demand from them in this regard.

The BBC report notes the chairman of the UN mission, Marzuki Darusma saying "As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook and Facebook is social media." So in some minds, they're tackling the issue across social media. The report continues:

Facebook has said there is "no place for hate speech" on its platform.

"We take this incredibly seriously and have worked with experts in Myanmar for several years to develop safety resources and counter-speech campaigns," a Facebook spokeswoman told the BBC.

"This work includes a dedicated Safety Page for Myanmar, a locally illustrated version of our Community Standards, and regular training sessions for civil society and local community groups across the country.

"Of course, there is always more we can do and we will continue to work with local experts to help keep our community safe."

"Safety" sounds good, but "counter-speech campaigns" ...

Sounds aside, this may be an example: "Last July, (Facebook) gave the example of policing use of the word "kalar", which it said could be used both innocuously and as a slur against Muslims." They had some problems sorting out which was which, but think they have it right now and only remove the slur instances. I guess because it refers to the darker skin color of Rohingya Mulsims "kalar" is seen as akin to "nigger" over here. I don't know ...

One hopes they aren't blocking use of Bengali, another preferred term for people who reject the term Rohingya, which was invented to lay claim to the land (from Rakhine, aka Rohan).  I'm using that for shorthand but ...  Are we forcing people to use the name the Bengali Muslims insist on being called and grant them a victory in their campaign? That sounds political.

The mentioned "inciting hatred" - not even violence - was the cause for Facebook just now banning the right-wing Britain First party, now disbanded in the UK. Its leaders were already kicked of Twitter and in physical jail (not "FB jail") for harassment. Specifically, they had agitated against Muslims too, so they're bound to have made some good points then, but maybe not in the right way, etc. (NBC News) Facebook's official statement on this is worth considering as a precedent:

"We are an open platform for all ideas, and political speech goes to the heart of free expression," said Facebook in a statement. "But political views can and should be expressed without hate. People can express robust and controversial opinions without needing to denigrate others on the basis of who they are."

This is the spirt of the policy (spelled out in more detail somewhere) that you should be able to follow and still speak your mind. It sounds reasonable enough...

They'll have rules. We can't demand anything, but would be reasonable to insist the rules allow fair self-expression. This should be the case, unless Facebook or the others have ulterior motives hiding under their public words. And it should not be like targeted sanctions against the "racist bad guy" social media users in this special and likely fake crisis. It should be applied evenly to both sides. Sometimes at least it is. I've seen haters against the Buddhists peddling false evidence and spouting blood libel get their posts removed and entire accounts banned (on Twitter at least). But broadly so far, everyone  can still speak their mind, within limits on a private platform, etc.

For those users worried about their voices being silenced in this effort ... it might be, depending, through no fault of your own. But it becomes more likely if you go against the spirit-grain they're hoping to achieve. So here's some advice that should allow you to carry on within the spirit of Facebook's policy and probably just about everywhere else. (This is my own version, which I follow and find works so far to keep me out of most trouble.

* Basically, think of yourself as a global citizen with some responsibility for the content of the global discussion. Even if you're there casually or drunk or whatever ... if possible, be professional. Which, in context, means things like these:
* If you're trying to educate people about what you think are the facts, take care about those supposed facts. Try to be skeptical even if you like what it says. Verify when possible, check for alternate views. If you want your word to be kind of like news, try to keep it from being fake.
* Try to maintain a humanist attitude even as you deal with issues of serious inhumanity.
* Avoid speaking from hate like you would (I hope) avoid spanking a child in anger.
* Speak from anger only with great care.
* Try to attack the problems with the people and not the people, even if all they seem to have is problems (what they do, not who they are...)
* Be careful about who among the Muslims you're talking about - the babies at least, and even many of the men have no blood on their hands - avoid sloppy thinking and conflation. (see further notes below) *
* Don't threaten to kill people or things like that

But for those trying to deal with this ... As I've suggested, emphasize how very many Muslims in Rakhine state did NOT take part in the crisis last year, did not burn their villages, run off and spout false stories, and have not participated in murders and other violence. Some were killed for this moderation by the other Muslims who insist on violent crisis and an Arakan solution. These loyal Muslims at the very least deserve better than being lumped together with terrorists in a kind of "Muslims are evil" attitude.

Getting philosophical here... underneath it all, even the ARSA terrorists killing their neighbors  are as "not really good or bad" as everyone. If they must be killed or violently stopped - and that is frequently the case - so be it. But this is sad. They were all born blameless babies at one point.
I've always maintained such an attitude and so far I've never been kicked out of anywhere. (I also haven't quite reached a threat profile where you're more likely to be info-assassinated).

* (further notes on "who among them") That last is a tricky issue, especially sharp here - in how militant poisoned Muslims tend to pop out of partly innocent communities. The other side could stand to understand this, but hardly anyone outside of Myanmar is telling them, so they largely just don't realize.  In Myanmar as elsewhere, they hide among the community. Much of the community conceals them willingly. Others ... don't dare defy that trend. The nasty ones, with the actions no one could blame your for hating - they keep coming out and killing others, infidels, year after year. Their education tells them this is okay and encouraged. All they needs is a few guns, a couple of crude IEDs, and some swords and sticks to overrun a village or a security post or both. Then they melt back in and claim repression, causing problems for the government.

This will be tricky stuff for anyone to know and sort out who's who and decide how to deal with it. Simply tolerating it as the cost of a multicultural society imposed on them by ling-term squatters who claim the land as their own. There will be a strong and natural tendency to want that whole community gone to somewhere Muslim or Bengali. Some will be happy at seeing them flee and hoping they stay gone, and wish the government HAD really chased them away as alleged. Few people in the world can understand the kind of frustration they're dealing with.

BBC and the rest ask why do Buddhists hate Muslims over there? They answer: because they have a different religion  and the Buddhists think they don't belong. Uh, no ... they hate them collectively because the Muslim Bengali communities are so riddled with total assholes no one should have to deal with, and they're tired of just being scared of them. That thinking isn't the most laudable, but it's understandable. Following on that, many people want the Rohingya Muslims gone, mostly because they hate and fear them, and also... because they don't belong in the first place (or so runs their thinking). It's clearly the more important part of that picture that's generally left out or de-emphasized.

Gu Dar Pyin Massacre: Mass Grave Location

February 11, 2018
rough, incomplete

Background (may move and expand)
As I was wrapping up part III of Fake News and Massacre Marketing in the Rohingya Crisis for The Indicter, a new massacre story emerged and got a  decent starting analysis at the end of section 3.5. In review, ...
This cites an AP report of Feb. 1 By Foster Klug heralded: “AP confirms 5 unreported Myanmar mass graves” http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ap-confirms-previously-unreported-myanmar-mass-graves-52755289 – Version with video: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/AP-confirms-5-previously-unreported-Myanmar-mass-12541732.php

at least 75 and perhaps 400 people were killed, innocent Muslims butchered by bloodthirsty Buddhists here in GuDar Pyin. But only so many (unclear) had been found in mass graves, some with faces and flesh burned away with some blue acid the soldiers brought with them: "The faces of the men half-buried in the mass graves had been burned away by acid or blasted by bullets. Noor Kadir could only recognize his friends by the colors of their shorts."

The Government found no mass graves of civilians, according to statement. As the Irriwaddy reported on February 3:

According to the government’s statement, 19 ARSA militants were killed in fighting after about 500 militants attacked security officials with firearms, knives, slingshots, and darts. Officials buried the bodies of the dead militants systematically and opened a criminal case under counter-terrorism Article 50 (i) at Nyaung Chaung police station. 

That would seem to run up against this video record. The raw video is of the most interest, but only snippets were shown. Luckily a pro-Rohingya activist posted five videos on Facebook. These show five bodies clearly, and parts or traces of a few others. The central scene, closes we get to seeing a "mass grave" is three half-buried bodies of fighting-age men. And that same scene was already shown on video back on August 31, at Rohingya Blogger, where we see there's at least a fourth body not seen in the later footage. These four bodies will be analyzed more elsewhere, but for reference, these are numbered in the order seen here in Aug. 31 video:

1. red shirt, black mask (like ARSA fighters wear), buried from the abdomen down, abdomen wound and shot in the left eye?

2. lone head set near buried body with only bare legs partly sticking out (presumed one victim, beheaded)

3. long-sleeved blue shirt, hands raised (rigor mortis?), buried up to the chest, no clear wounds

4. yellow shirt, buried up to the chest, head blown open

Are These Included?

I've had back and forth thoughts on this. As the article puts it, these four "seem executed, with one even beheaded. If this is another Inn Din, it seems to be uglier yet." (then I saw Inn Din was pretty ugly and includes a beheading...) But I'm not sure if these are militants, as the mask suggests, nor who killed them. Wouldn't they take a militant's mask off to maybe see who he is, long before killing him? Sure, and they might put it back on... who knows why.

But they could be civilians, with the mask added - by soldiers to justify the killing by making them look ARSA, or by the ARSA types who killed them, also just for the suggestion. At Inn Din, they went to great lengths to obscure the fairly obvious fact that the ten killed men were ARSA fighters. Why suggest that here if it weren't true?

First, it's better to have them seen as any kind of Rohingya if the victims were actually Rakhine civilians or others ...  Secondly, consider this scenario: 19 ARSA fighters were killed in this one clash, besides those wounded. That's because they lost badly, perhaps because the base they attacked was well-prepared, as many reportedly were based on last-minutes tip-offs. They had an unusually high number of Rohingya men buried here as a background issue and a source of anger. They also have someone who tipped the authorities off, leading to this great defeat. Or so they suspect, but it's hard to be sure or to say who it was. Still, they might go spy hunting in any accessible area, round up 4 infidel men they hated anyway, and execute them here as spies.

Considering the background loss, they might get clever and put one in the mask of a fallen comrade, even before shooting him dead. This would help sow the idea that these were the killed fighters the government will have to admit to. They leave them with faces unburied so we can see this, but smear mud on the faces of the others, and especially the eyes ... so we can't see their distinctive Rakhine features. They pour some blue crap to claim it's acid, so after the dogs eat their faces away, they can show that and say that's what the acid was for (it does't stand up to scrutiny, as I'll try to explain). 

Now the government had to admit to burying 19 killed attackers, but the ARSA guys have video we're to take as proof that ... the fighters were executed, and even beheaded, rather than killed in action, then buried sloppily with weird acid sludge to slowly dissolve them. Or if possible, they'll say these were civilians too, or who knows, but...

They'd also say these are the cleaner or unclear cases the killers left visible - to cameras. Aside from some other scenes described but not filmed ... somehow the regime limited the activist to filming just this scene, another with 2 bodies, and just a couple others with half a skeletal body and some partial ribs, somehow, almost all after everyone was reduced to bone. Somehow they delayed all recording in those cases, and somewhere they've still kept from view are the hacked-up babies and charred elders people describe seeing, but that no one filmed.

The central question to me at the moment was also posed by reporters at the Irriwaddy:

"The statement did not elaborate on whether security forces buried the ARSA casualties in the Gutar Pyin graveyard or in other locations.”

So it’s not clear if the bodies we see, improperly buried in a non-cemetery location, are the same ones they refer to. That mask suggests they were fighters, but it's not proof. So this is the most important question, perhaps. The government may get clearer on this point - may or may not locate this scene and give their own explanation for it - the cemetery location isn't clear for reference, but "near" a cemetery is a relevant locale, by the claims. Ominously, this is where the Inn Din victims were also buried. 

Location
I haven't yet tried to geolocate anything in Myanmar - it's mostly fields and some trees, little that's distinct. Here there's no clear sunlight to establish directions... maybe, by correlating the earlier video with time-stamps, or something, I could find to solar angles and use shadows to set the directions...

general area, at the alleged one, is pretty clear - explained here
https://twitter.com/CL4Syr/status/959050979030155264
* Location on Wikimapia (currently in-labeled)

Scene A: Perhaps the only scene we'll consider here for now, is the one with four bodies. In the September 6 (?) video, from Ro Nay San Lwin on Facebook, we would see them in reverse order of numbering (as in analysis, elsewhere) - #4 isn't shown - need to correlate where he was - the first one seen here is #3, which must be just hidden behind those leaves on the right - it's just a few steps in but not visible until we get close, and see he's now headless, the sunken foot end of his grave flooded with rainwater, one hand missing and the other laying flat (rigor mortis faded?). Body #2 is visible from the start, boxed in red. As we get closer, we can also see the spot where #1 with the mask is, near the fence's corner (another wet gap in the grass there). More is seen, but this is where get our best stray frames with possibly adequate scenery clues. 

Directions, provisional (see below): we're facing northeast, so there's a line of trees to the north (left), open fields ahead to the right (ne and east), mountains seen in the distance to the northeast, blocked by some very large trees to the E-NE. This is from noting mountains will be seen in 2 directions - smaller ones very nearby to the west, or large ones further away to the east. These look semi-distant, and maybe a wider, deeper range like we see further inland (east). The north aspect of this northeast presumption is explained below.

Scene B ...briefly, another video shows bloody mud where people were killed, but no longer are. It's behind some row of little banana trees (?), and amidst a small or middling patch of other lager trees, apparently including at least one tall palm tree (glimpsed in a view ahead not included here). Looking back (right) might be southwest - we see open fields for a ways in that direction

This scene is most likely just off to the left side in the upper view, just behind those (banana?) trees along the left, with other trees including a palm further to the north or NE.  Between the small trees, we're looking out over a similar field, and maybe the same one. Near the likely path at the far edge of the near plot, there are a couple of little indents - possible where these bodies are. We might see on the right the gap in the hedges they walk through. There is a bit of a fence visible on the far left, but I can't verify if there is or isn't a collapsed section in the middle, or a lone little tree a ways inside the corner to match it to the above scene. The line of distant homes and trees is similar between scenes, but that, like everything here, if pretty common and generic. The grass in the field appears lusher in the view from scene B, but we don't know if they were filmed at the same time or after some growth.

From scene (or scene view) A: the distant mountains - with the right comparison work, the arrangement of these can say where it's filmed, or at least give a line of sight. I tried with Google Earth's terrain feature and low level-views and got a good lead. One mountain pops out as having the small, sharp-edged shape in the middle here - not an absolute match, but compelling. That's a bit southwest of Sanmyaywa, or several miles to the northeast of GuDarPyin. (38 km, heading ~45 degrees, from village center). 

The exact angle of view to this peak would vary a bit from positions outside of town, as this seems to be. (it would be a view more to the east if you're further north, or if south of the village, more of a north view). Just what explains the larger-seeming but more rounded peaks to the left and right, not so clear, and depends on the angle of view - the ones on the left may be nearer, the larger appearance suggests that, as does the haze difference, but this is unclear or slight - I could not find any angle of view that clearly explains this arrangement of peaks, with most lower peaks not coming trough like they truly would from the ground. Above I included a screen grab of a view from well south of Gu Dar Pyin and looking almost north, as one example. Better views might (or might not) be found closer to the village.  For example, from a bit north of the pin below, we might look up a ravine, with a long hill crest to the left and to the right, the peaks currently under the line.

Whatever the line of view to whatever peak, it will be about the angle of the field orientation here (edges and fences), and about the angle of that line of banana trees. If I have the right hill pegged, that should run somewhat northeast, depending how far it is from village center.

One possible area is just northwest of the village across some fields, 500m northeast of village center. Small square plots, Trees to north/NW, open fields to east and south... 2010 images shows strange round mounds now gone or unclear ... two homes on a hill next to this. (AP: "A handful of witnesses confirmed two other big graves near a hillside cemetery, and smaller graves scattered around the village.") Still, a few things about this spot don't seem quite right - the angle of fields is too north to match the line to that sharp peak, for one thing. The field division isn't right (but can change in years - last image is Jan. 11, 2014). Big trees too near on the right, etc. Really, I think it's just a similar spot. So if only to help visualize what I was looking for, here's that spot:

And maybe I don't even have the right peak to point to. I leave this undone and out there for anyone with better tools, local knowledge, etc. to possibly place this footage so we can see what that means. Like, is it just outside a Buddhist village 4 men vanished from at this time? (Is there such a place? Where is it, so we can narrow our search there and find or maybe rule out a match?)

To consider, from AP report:
Almost every villager interviewed by the AP saw three large mass graves at Gu Dar Pyin's northern entrance, near the main road, where witnesses say soldiers herded and killed most of the Rohingya. A handful of witnesses confirmed two other big graves near a hillside cemetery, and smaller graves scattered around the village.
...
Mohammad Younus, 25, was crawling on his hands and knees after being shot twice when his brother carried him to some underbrush, where Younus lay for seven hours. At one point, he saw three trucks stop and begin loading dead bodies before heading off toward the cemetery.
...
In the days and weeks after the attack, villagers braved the soldiers to try to find whatever was left of their loved ones. Dozens of bodies littered the paths and compounds of the wrecked homes; they filled latrine pits. The survivors soon learned that taller, darker green patches of rice shoots in the paddies marked the spots where the dead had fallen.
...
Bloated bodies began to rise to the surface of the rain-saturated graves.
"There were so many bodies in so many different places," said Mohammad Lalmia, 20, a farmer whose family owned a pond that became the largest of the mass graves. "They couldn't hide all the death."
...
On Sept. 9, villager Mohammad Karim, 26, captured three videos of mass graves time-stamped between 10:12 a.m. and 10:14 a.m., when soldiers chased him away, he said. In the Bangladesh refugee camps, nearly two dozen other Rohingya from Gu Dar Pyin confirmed that the videos showed mass graves in the north of the village.
(by inclusion, it's suggested the video cited here with beheaded body #2 is what this refers to - those legs are shown in the AP video report)