Warning

Warning: This site contains images and graphic descriptions of extreme violence and/or its effects. It's not as bad as it could be, but is meant to be shocking. Readers should be 18+ or a mature 17 or so. There is also some foul language occasionally, and potential for general upsetting of comforting conventional wisdom. Please view with discretion.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Kha Maung Seik Massacre: Data Dump

January 10, 2018
(incomplete, undated updates)

...

General Attack Accounts

survivors, 6 named, interviewed
http://www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/interview-bereaved-families-hindus-killed-arsa-terrorists/
Ronni, Oh-Htein Village. brother killed, staying the night with his daughter in KMS
. I did not yet know whether my brother’s wife and children have not been accounted and have been killed. We heard most of them killed by terrorists. Our village Khamaungseik, where Hindus mostly lived, was surrounded by Bengali villages.
Arshee Kumar, Maungtaw 4 ward.
I lived with my family in Maungtaw. My daughter, my parents-in-law and my brother-in-law were among the victims. My daughter lived with my parents-in-law in Khamaungseik village (south). Dead bodies dug out included corpses of my mother-in-law and brother-in-law. The bodies of my daughter, only 8 years old, and my father-in-law have not been found yet. My spouse has suffered from a mental disorder since the brutal slaughter of the people. All were killed by throat slitting. Some were found to have been decapitated and limbs amputated. We want to find our daughter as soon as possible. I will not stop looking for my daughter even if she is found dead and it is only her skeleton. I pray for my daughter not to experience such a worse situation. Terrorists not only killed Hindus, including the cruel killing of children, but also raped the women.
Orno Barlar, Khamaungseik Village
Among the corpses dug up were my husband and two sons. I could identify them as I well remembered their clothing. On the bodies were cuttings on their throats with limbs amputated. Some legs were almost completely cut. I survived because I had been in Maungtaw at an event. Fifteen of my relatives have not yet been found. Terrorists killed our Hindus in Khamaungseik.
Salmon Barlar, Kyeinchaung Village.
My husband’s two brothers were among the dead bodies dug up. Their names are Bisnia and Han Montie. Their wives and children were also killed. A mother and her two children and another mother and her three children have not been accounted for. We overheard that one was abducted to Bangladesh. I live now in Kyeinchaung village. My husband’s two brothers earned their living in Khamaungseik as blacksmiths.
Mardoori, Khamaungseik Village (south).
My sister, her spouse and her two sons were among the killed. Prior to the event, I fortunately missed being killed as I had been in Thamanthar village. Among the corpses dug out, there was the body of my sister. My sister wore her usual bangles on her wrist. By seeing these, I identified that it was her. The bodies of her husband and her sons have not yet been found.
Minu, Maungtaw ward 4.
I live in Maungtaw. My two sons and my daughter lived in Khamaungseik. My elder son was married, as was my daughter. One son was still single. My sons were eking out a living as goldsmiths. Yesterday, my two sons were found among the dead bodies dug up yesterday. His daughter and child, including my daughter and her son, were abducted to Bangladesh. Over there, our Hindus found them and brought them, it was learnt. I had phone contacts with my daughter and daughter-in-law. It has been learnt that gold from their shop was robbed.
Note: no miracle survivors who hid behind a door, playing dead, etc. Everyone who lived was never there, just had relatives, or was away for some reason. Or, they have the special; and plausible story of the 8 kidnapped women (see below)

useful video: Massacre of Kha Maung Seik, August 2017
Genuine Watch, Sep 21, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kleSIWyMsRc
2:37 Anika says the killers came "wearing black clothes. only their eyes can be seen." This is the ARSA uniform. See them on video preparing for their jihad here, five days earlier. "we will give lives and take lives for Arakan."

One interesting witness also describes killers in black,  no insignia, faces unseen, who killed 108, including "Muslims too." In addition to Hindus killed, or in addition to themselves? He won't say if they're Muslim - he didn't recognize them. He says they were surrounded/threatened, imprisoned by them for five days before fleeing to (whatever camp this is) on August 31.

This guy's putting it a bit differently gets Islamist propagandist Safiur Rahman to report it as probably government thugs, because they "killed Muslims too." 
https://twitter.com/shafiur/status/912425300914356224
Myanmar's Men in Black Kill #Rohingya Muslims and Hindus
https://twitter.com/shafiur/status/912498127344562176

Just a few hours into their repression following the militant attacks and they've thought this up? Dress as Rohingya and try to get Hindus to help kill Muslims, let key witnesses escape with other Muslims? That must mean the repression was planned ahead of time, and timed to coincide with the ARSA assault they also knew the time for! </sarcasm>

Same guy (same interview, apparently, by Rahman it seems), read a bit differently by The Quint, given as 50-year-old Nalanjan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQdcakAtn5Q
This also has an interview with Roksana Bala, who saw the men in black. She says they were blindfolded by the thugs, as well as held prisoner for days, not allowed to go out to bathe or anything. This is a story we haven't heard fully. She heard 86 other Hindus were killed in their town, but apparently didn't see it happen. She also fails to specify the killers were Muslims, just dressed like ARSA guys, but doesn't claim they killed Muslims either, so she wasn't promoted by Rahman, like Nalanjan was. 
Video claim of 108 bodies found is incorrect. Only 90 were ever expected, and only half of these found, last I heard.

Times Now (India) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNAScc1P8A8
Oct. 8 - Interviews in the Hindu camp: "close to 108 died in Fakirapara (Fakira Bazar) says Chittaranjan Pal, a Hindu refugee, (older man) they attacked the Hindus "after the repression began" but not earlier. Omykhia Bala (older woman) says her home and property were all burned by Arakan (Alakyan) party (ARSA)

From the accounts of the kidnapped women (see below):

recounted their experiences on 25th August. A group of about 500 Muslims terrorists led by a foreigner in black clothing and Noru Lauk from Khamaungseik Village entered their homes in Yebawkya village at about 8 am on 25th August and attacked. They took away their belongings, jewellery and mobile phones.

Members of the terrorist mob repeated, “This is not your village. It is our territory. We are the sole owners of this land. You all are same with the Myanmar Armed Forces and police members. We will murder Buddhists and all of you who worship the statues made of bricks and stones.

All Hindu villagers were then divided into two groups, according to gender. Their hands were tied and they were taken to Bawtala Village.

When they neared Bawtala Village, the women said they saw two pits, with a third pit being dug. The terrorists then killed all the Hindu men, slashing their throats, cutting them into pieces and throwing them into the mass graves. (GNLM, October 5)

http://hlaoo1980.blogspot.com/2017/09/massacre-of-maungdaw-hindus-by-arsa.html - great resource - several obscure and early reports compiled - some factual confusion (like attack said 9pm, but more like 9am, it seems).

Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis Enters a Dangerous New Phase
International Crisis Group, Report #292 / Asia 7 December 2017
https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-east-asia/myanmar/292-myanmars-rohingya-crisis-enters-dangerous-new-phase
Massacre at Kha Muang Seik:
"One particularly high-profile case is the alleged massacre by ARSA of dozens of Hindu men and women in Kha Maung Seik (also known as Fakira Bazar) in Maungdaw township. Conflicting accounts of the incident and of who was responsible have surfaced. Survivors who fled to Bangladesh initially told Bangladeshi journalists in late-August that the killers were Rakhine militants; others said later that they wore masks, preventing identification. The first report of the incident by Myanmar media on 5 September 2017 attributed the killings to ARSA, based on interviews with survivors in Myanmar. A more detailed account reaching the same conclusion was posted on Facebook on 13 September by a Rakhine nationalist parliament member who investigated the incident. The security forces reported finding and exhuming a mass grave containing the victims’ bodies on 24 September; these subsequently were cremated. It is not clear what forensic evidence remains." 22
22 “Hindus too fleeing persecution in Myanmar”, The Daily Star (Bangladesh), 31 August 2017; “Mystery surrounds deaths of Hindu villagers in Myanmar mass graves”, The Guardian, 12 October 2017; “Dozens of Hindus Killed in Maungdaw: Relatives”, The Irrawaddy, 5 September 2017; Kyaw Zaw Oo (Arakan National Party, Sittwe-2 constituency), Facebook post, 12 September 2017, http://bit.ly/2ApcmZ0; See “45 Hindu corpses cremated”, GNLM, 29 September 2017.

(from that) Kyaw Zaw Oo: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10155670338304556&id=41021854555
Apparently the guy behind the video above? Could check photos of his face, but eh.... Uses the same map, same confusion over Bawtala. ANd here's a date discrepancy, I think:
"Our findings have revealed that 56 Hindu villagers were killed in Ye Bauk Kyar village massacre which happened around 4 o’clock in the afternoon of 24th August, another 37 Hindus were slaughtered at nearby Taung Ywar village around 10 o’clock in the morning of 25th August, thus the total fatality headcount makes 93 in these two killings. Looking at the timeline of events, the first massacre of Ye Bauk Kyar village was launched less than half a day before the night-time coordinated attacks on 30 security outposts by the terrorists. (A different timeline told by some says that the attacks happened on 28th August and number of people killed are said to be 98.)"
This is new and maybe confused. The massacre preceded the overrunning of security? How would they do that? Doesn't everyone else say it all happened the morning of the 25th? Or was I just presuming that? I think the women report 108 or so marched towards Bawtala on the 25th, all massacred that day, app. half seen by the women, killed from about noon to 6 pm and dumped in the 3 pits found. The others, 48 not found, maybe killed later/elsewhere. I don't see a 56/37 split anywhere, except probably in which village they were from before marched out and killed in two groups, apparently, of 45 and 48. Some correlation work remains on these stories...

http://www.statecounsellor.gov.mm/en/node/1044

Kidnapped Women
early report, September 5 - a young surviving sister has heard from her older surviving sister
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/dozens-hindus-killed-maungdaw-relatives.html
"The Daily Star said that the displaced villagers estimated that more than 80 members of their communities in Rakhine State had been killed by unidentified armed men ... reportedly killed by Muslim militants" An 8-year-old girl was away working and lived - "One of her elder sisters is among eight women who said they were initially abducted by militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), but now sheltering at a relief camp in Bangladesh’s Kutupalong District. "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRw4Pe9wEQQ

...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jB8K0pVAe8
September 16 video interview with two of the girls: black-clad ARSA Islamists shouting Allahu Akbar were the ones who massacred the girls' families and husbands, cutting their throats and dumping them  in pits, calling it their way of celebrating the feast of Eid, something they had been wanting to do for three years (since 2014? why?)

After press conference showing the bodies and telling the locals' story:
Reuters, noting they had earlier run a conflicting story:  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya/myanmar-finds-more-bodies-in-mass-grave-u-n-seeks-rapid-aid-increase-idUSKCN1C01GT

AFP report, gives more prominence to ARSA's weak denial: http://indianexpress.com/article/world/rohingya-crisis-hindus-recount-massacre-in-myanmar-as-mass-graves-unearthed-in-rakhine-state-4863922/

http://www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/slaughtered-hindus-testament-brutality-arsa-terrorists/
GNLM/Reuters
“We watched as they tied each person, hands behind their back and also legs … They cut all their throats and pushed them into a pit,” said one of the women, Bina Bala, 22, adding that the women were spared after promising to convert to Islam.

http://www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/area-territory-arsa-extremist-terrorists/
October 5, 8 women all returned, had to sneak away
The eight women — Rica, 25, Onnica, 20, Fawmila, 18, Gaungga 20, Gura Puni, also known as Rushila, 19, Bina Falar, 22, Puja alias Rabia, 18 and Raj Kumari, 15,
...
The graves were discovered on 24 and 25 September after security forces received information about slaughtered Hindus who were buried in shallow graves.
...
The Hindus were kept together with Muslims at the Kutuparlaung refugee camp and forced to wear burqas, the traditional dress of Muslim women. At about 1pm, foreign media (speaking in English) conducted interviews. The Hindus were told to tell the media that men and their families were killed by the army and ethnics. They had to flee fearing that they would be killed by the army troops. They were threatened that their children’s throats would be slashed unless they said as they were told.
The surviving women said a Hindu girl, 15-year-old Ma Raj Kumari, was being forced to marry a Muslim man, Barbu, who working at the camp. This was reported to Hindu leader Shaw Phaw Nam Shaw Mar Raw Ni living in Bangladesh, who learned that Hindus were being converted to Islam. The religious leader contacted a member of the BGB and immediately went to the camp. There, the eight Hindu women and children were found. The Muslim terrorists had fled.
...
“Those girls are beautiful. We must force them into Islam”, Norulauk, the leader of the terrorists, allegedly said, according to the eyewitnesses. The females who were spared ranged in age from 15 to 25, the Hindu women said.
At about 12 pm, a number of Muslim terrorists returned and took eight Hindu women and young children to the house of Raw Phi in Bawtalar Village. Until 26 August, five people guarded the house. Wielding their swords, the Muslim watchmen threatened them, saying: “This is our country. It is not of you ethnics. We will occupy this country.”
Even though the Hindu religion forbids them from eating meat, the Hindus were forced to eat meals of rice and beef.
The Hindu women and children were taken from Kutuparlaung Camp to a BGP Camp where they spent the night. A Hindu monk came and took them from the BGP Camp and sheltered them at his house the following day. On 30 August, officials of the Bangladeshi government took them back to Kutuparlaung Camp, saying that they would provide relief supplies for them. The eight Hindu women and children were accommodated at a chicken farm inside the refugee camp, and a Bangladeshi Hindu man was assigned to guard them.
On 19 September, one of eight Hindu women was able to contact her brother-in-law in Maungtaw by phone and told him the location of the scene where Hindu followers, including her husband, were killed. On 26 September, she was able to contact Hindu religious leader U Ni Mal in Sittway, who suggested returning them to Myanmar with the assistance of Myanmar security forces.
The women consulted and left the camp on the pretext of visiting a Hindu religious festival. They arrived back in Myanmar safe and sound with the assistance of Myanmar security forces.
With the eight Hindu women and the children safely returned to Myanmar, authorities are providing them with necessary assistance, officials said. Because of their tragic accounts of the inhumane acts and brutal slaughtering by extremist Muslim terrorists, it is hoped that the motives and intentions of the attackers is exposed, authorities said.—GNLM


...


The women's names, compared from:
GNLM vs. New Age vs. other sources. 
- Rica, 25 - Rika Bala, 27 - Rika Dahr, 28
- Onnica, 20 - Anika Bala, 15 - ...
- Fawmila, 18 - ? - Ma Fomila (later GNLM report)
- Gaungga 20 - Ganga Bala, 20 -
- Gura Puni, also known as Rushila, 19 - ? -
- Bina Falar, 22 -?- Mino Bala, 22 - 
- Puja alias Rabia, 18 -
- Raj Kumari, 15 - Shawrassati Rajkomari, 18 (related?) -
- ? - Josna Bala, 25 -
- ? - Sosil Bala, 20 - 

--
www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/media-interviews-hindus-rakhine-state/
March, 2018
The local and foreign media interviewed Hindu women who returned to Myanmar from Bangladesh, after they were abducted by ARSA extremist terrorists, at the General Administration Department in Maungtaw on 17 March.
Ma Fomila, Khamaungseik village: It was between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. when terrorists entered our house that day. They tied our hands behind our backs, blindfolded us and ordered us to sit in a row. They beat us with sticks and then murdered all the men. They demanded gold and cash from us, and when they got what they wanted, they took us into the jungle. They ordered eight of us (all women) to sit in a hut. They insulted our religion. They asked us whether we would convert to their religion and marry them. As we were afraid to die, we had to give in to their demands.
The terrorists ordered us to discard our clothes and wear those worn by women of their faith. They then took us to Bangladesh. We reached the other bank at about 11 a.m. the next day. We faced torture and insults from the women of their faith in the other country. To stop them from harassing us, we told them we would convert to their faith and live in love and peace together. The terrorists warned us to tell the media as they had instructed us to do. Or else, they would tell the media that our villagers and the people of our race were killed by the Rakhine people and the military.
One night, they took us to a man named Babu. At that time, more than 1,000 people from their faith were demanding that we be murdered. Babu told the crowd that he would inform the police if we were murdered. We stayed there for some 35 days. We were asked if we wanted to stay back in Bangladesh. We told them we wanted to live on the land where we were brought up under our religion and customs.

Babu - Barbu?

A 15-year-old named Raj Kumari was forced to marry a Muslim man named Barbu who worked at the camp, they said. The news was reported to Hindu leader Shaw Phaw Nam Shaw Mar Raw Ni who lives in Bangladesh and was made aware that the abducted Hindus were being converted to Islam.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/witnesses-provide-new-details-of-killings-of-hindus-10052017152154.html


https://www.irrawaddy.com/in-person/abducted-hindu-rica-arsa-killed-husband.html
Rica, 25, answers some question:
"Didn’t you beg terrorists not to kill your husbands?"
"We did. We went down on bended knees and begged them. We had given them all our gold and made them promise not to kill our husbands. They slashed my husband even after they got gold from us. I told them that I had given them a lot of gold and asked them not to kill him. When they were about to kill my children, I said I won’t do as they want if they kill my children. I said I didn’t want to survive if they killed my children. [So, they didn’t.] We have a gold shop. Bengalis took all 30 ticals of gold and over four million kyats."

How they escaped: "We contacted [Hindu community leader] U Ni Mal. We sneaked out of Kutupalong Camp. We left for Taung Pyo Letwe in the car of a Hindu man. It took around one and a half hours. On the way, we were inspected by the Bangladesh border guards. The driver said we were going to Deepavali Festival [a Hindu religious festival]. When we got out of the car, we saw government officials waiting for us in Taung Pyo Letwe."
Arrived back in Myanmar October 3. In the camp or on the way back, unclear: "Bengalis tried to find us to kill us."

The Kidnappers
By analyzing who was associated with these interviews, told the same story or presented them, these can be partly identified. Journalists who were used in their operation might be called on to say who the propaganda pimps were in this case. The women give some names, and the GNLM report notes the "terroroists had fled" by the time Bangladeshi border guard police arrived to check on or separate the Hindus. That would suggest guilty conscience, plus a tip-off.
...

Interesting allegation from an odd Indian news show:
https://twitter.com/HeinZaw0/status/946259856851312640
http://americanconservativeherald.com/posing-as-refugee/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNAScc1P8A8
Oct. 8 22 Rohingya Muslims, who were posing as refugees, have been arrested in Bangladesh, Times Now has learnt. The 22 people are allegedly linked to the massacre of Rohingya Hindus in Myanmar. 

I'll be hoping to hear more about this.

The Bodies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kha_Maung_Seik_massacre
One of the eight abducted Hindu women taken into Bangladesh called up a Hindu community leader in Myanmar and told him about the massacre and the location of the mass graves.[14][15][7] Accordingly, the local Hindu leadership prepared a list, where 102 Hindus were identified as missing from the two villages of Ye Baw Kya and Taung Ywar in the Kha Maung Seik area of Maungdaw District.[16] Based on the information, the Myanmar army discovered two mud pits with 28 Hindu corpses outside the village of Ye Baw Kya on 24 September.[16] The victims included 20 women and eight men and children.[17] On 25 September, the search party consisting of the Myanmar army, the police and local Hindu leader discovered 17 Hindu corpses in another two mud pits 400 metres to the north east of the previously discovered mass graves.[14] According to the Hindu leader, the corpses were of men aged between 30 and 50.[16] The local Hindu leadership continued their search for the remaining corpses of the missing Hindus, who are feared dead.[16]


http://www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/remains-hindus-found/
batch 1 found Sept. 24 http://www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/25-bodies-hindu-villagers-identified/ (updated to 28?)

Batch 2 found September 25: http://www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/17-bodies-hindus-found-n-rakhine-state/
Combined 28 + 17 = 45.
Said to be 48 furthers unaccounted for. Total feared dead = 93.
108 once feared dead, 18 survivors found in the kidnapped women and their kids
Difference = 90 expected dead.
off by 3 - was that 25 ever updated, or was it just 43 bodies found? Will review...

Clearer photos (graphic) - we can see throats were cut, etc. But decay is very advanced, so that bodies might be falling apart besides what was hacked into by the killers. 


https://islamexposedblog.blogspot.com/2017/09/taqiyya-exposed-truth-about-those-poor.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq5tK2YAd_M





Mapping:


(may not be important here, but it's a thing I do, and locations like anything else might matter, depending what comes up)

https://www.facebook.com/InfomationCommittee/videos/806358086203966/
gives grave location 100 m nw of Ye baw kya. But I can't find this village, so...

I assembled this from Myanmar information Ministry map showing (YeBawKya or gravesite?). It's about 2-2.5 km on a line west of Fawira Bazaar or Kha Maung Seik. It would require a small river crossing. There's a traffic bridge not far to the south of that line, maybe close to where they started anyway. All distances are small, plus foot bridges maybe more common, or could they walk right across? I took two Google Earth views, marking the rivers, comparing to an old US Army map, and noting the mass grave was said to be near Bawtala village, it comes together pretty clearly.

Ye Baw Kya? Taung Ywar (also cited as a kidnapping origin)? 
Genuine Watch video
https://twitter.com/rick135b7/status/941940395348434944
map at 3:23 shows these villages pinned on the map - by this the grave spot by Bawtala
is 1.7 km sw of Ye Baw Kya (So the video saying 100m NW had it wrong?) and 1.5. km due west of Taung Ywar. But I think this map got Bawtala wrong - too far south to agree with the red dot on the gov. map and the US army map that seem to agree. Map updated to show this.





Map update:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10155670338304556&id=41021854555
Perhaps the same guy behind the video, uses the same lower left map but clearer as a jpeg.

www.kaladanpress.org/index.php/news/413-news-2017/september-2017/5149-refugees-question-burmese-government’s-report-of-mass-hindu-graves.html
Another independent map at this critical analysis I'm data-mining shows all three villages (perhaps, with Taung Ywar apparently dotted but not labeled - and placement needs compared), and with a place code attached to Baw Taw Lar - 197816, similar to neighboring villages, but not in any clear spatial order. This also needs compared, but might support the other reading...



Comparing features (a pain with no layering options), I made a mess of a graphic to clarify to myself these maps disagree on the placement of both Ye Baw Kya and Taung Ywar (however you attach a label to a dot in the latter). But both these maps agree on Bawtala being due west of the river's big bend. So I guess I was wrong with the first take, misled by an imprecise and old map coincidentally putting it very close to Naypyidaw's red dot said to be "near Bawtala." How I read it now is at right: they never got very near. They headed that way, southwest, which also towards the Bangladesh border, likely crossing that bridge. But then maybe veered right and buried the people near whatever town that is, at least 3 km north of Bawtala.
---
This is still a bit unclear, but comparing it to the Reuters map "The Rohingya Crisis: Burned to the Ground" (article , interactive graphic ) - this shows 110 km of largely burned areas along the coast, with burned areas marked in orage (they say red). For the area we're looking at, marked most explicitly of all "burned Pohingya villages," this shows and doesn't show... (note: the satellite view they used seems a bit distorted and rotated (clockwise, a few degrees)









Update, unlabeled: Bawtala, due west of the river's big bend, is also burned. The area previously marked Bawtala, given as all around the alleged mass grave site, is also burned, besides everything around the bridge, left and right on both riverbanks and pretty much everywhere. Someone's will to burn went pretty well unchecked around here - one side in the conflict overpowered the other here and did as they pleased. And whoever supposedly cleared this area of all Rohingyas left Rohingya militants able to capture a hundred civilians, march them around, massacre and bury them there, maybe in the open across the bridge, with no hassles. Some repression...

It may not matter or be worth it, but for geolocation purposes - scene photos from the mass grave to use comparing to satellite views in that area/those areas.

AFP - https://www.yahoo.com/news/hindus-recount-massacre-myanmar-mass-graves-unearthed-090950290.html - seems about mid-day, so facing roughly south. Behind us (roughly north) are dense trees and an upslope. Turning hard left (facing east), then further left until facing roughly north: 

Same basic starting view, helicopter and soldier, better view of distant mountains - www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2121298/china-eyes-closer-military-cooperation-myanmar-it-looks

Where the actual grave is - less clear, but should be nearby - in the woods, some views suggest, or at the edge.

Noting later: near the bodies there's an undulating edge between the little hill they're at the bottom of, and the surrounding rice paddies. In the top and bottom images we can see this connects to two other smaller mounds at sort of a right angle. There are several little "islands" like this out in the paddies in this area, but this is one of at least 3 parts in maybe an L shape, one with substantial crown of trees, in which apparently they found the two pits with 28 bodies on August 24. 


False Reports and Promotion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1AyY_9v78E
Hindu Families's Statement against pro-axis Rakhines and Govt.
Rohingya VisionTV
Published on Aug 29, 2017 (California time - 14.5 hours behind Myanmar time, whatever for Bangladesh...
Interesting point: at 2:52 woman is asked if their area (Foira Bazar) is in Burma. She says "no, in Arakan" (the Rohingya Islamist name for the area). Was she reading too far into what they wanted to hear? Yes - everyone else corrects her - the other women and the video host, whose message seems to be "we're just saying where you're from, not making a statement - it's Burma/Myanmar, to the outside world. But yes, it's what we call Arakan in private, and what the maps will hopefully call Arakan soon. Good girl."

http://www.newagebd.net/article/23064/hindus-lay-down-lives-for-muslims-in-myanmar
Hindus lay down lives for Muslims in Myanmar
Mohammad Nurul Islam . Cox’s Bazar | Published: 00:05, Aug 30,2017 | Updated: 02:01, Aug 30,2017
At least eight Hindu women lost their fathers and husbands at village Kha Maung Seik in northern Maungdaw in Myanamar at the hands of the country’s army for their unwillingness to participate in the killing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State. ... They all came with others Rohingya Muslims through Tumbro borderline and arrived at Kutupalong makeshift refugee camp. They are living with the Muslims, said Rohingya leader Mohammad Noor. ...They told New Age at Kutupalong makeshift refugee camp ...
Rika "the Myanmar military and Buddhists killed our husbands and fathers because they were unwilling to take part in killing Rohingya Muslims in our village"
Anika: ‘I am carrying for six months. Myanmar military and Buddhists community killed my husband for not participating in killing and ousting Rohingya Muslims."
Shawrassati: "Buddhists community and Myanmar militaries ordered them to take part in killing “foes” and ousting Rohingya Muslims from their homesteads. But my father did not take part in this killing. Later, Buddhists community and Myanmar military caught my father from house and killed him. As my mother tried to save my father, she was also killed by them."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1xrk89bjIw
WION: Reka Dhar says she doesn't know who were the masked men that hacked her husband to death, but some nice Muslims agreed to help her and others escape "because we promised them we would convert to their religion."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFtdpEOirdA 
Al Jazeera English video report from the camps speaks to two others of the kidnapped girls (unknown to reporter). Annica Bhar (15, pregnant, cited above) tells how "masked men" killed her husband and others while she and a friend (name spoken but unclear) "were spared" (unexplained). The reporter suggests it was government forces behind it.

September 4
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-village/rohingya-say-their-village-is-lost-to-myanmars-spiraling-conflict-idUSKCN1BI0GI
"Now in Bangladesh, 20 Muslims and Hindus gave interviews in which they recounted how they were forced out of their village of Kha Maung Seik in Myanmar’s Rakhine State on Aug. 25." One says “All the Muslims in our village, about 10,000, fled." The army is blamed for initial assault, with civilian Buddhist thugs brought in for the massacre. Some of the 8 captured women were presented for this article, telling what they now insist was a false story: "A group of Hindu women refugees in Kutapalong said they saw eight Hindu men killed by Buddhist Rakhines after they refused to attack Muslims. “They asked my husband to join them to kill Rohingya but he refused, so they killed him,” said Anika Bala, 15. Six months pregnant, she said Muslims helped her get to Bangladesh."
...

After the story change (denial mode)
https://twitter.com/ARSA_Official/status/913061262958911494
Sept. 27: "Burmese Govt has to Stop 'Victim Blaming', Allow Investigations into Atrocities; ARSA Denies of Targetting Civilians." Attached statement denies specific crimes alleged in the Hindu villages on August 25. Someone posts a snippet of this longer video of the captive Hindu women thanking the Muslims for saving them from the Government-Hindu massacre.

"An alleged Rohingya insurgent, along with his supporters at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh, accused the Rakhine Buddhists of the Hindu massacre and putting the blame on Rohingya Muslims."

https://twitter.com/nslwin/status/913343981425131520
Ro Nay San Lwin
@nslwin
 28 Sep 2017
The same #Hindu women gave two versions of testimonies. First they said their husbands were killed by #Rakhine Buddhists. Now saying #Muslims.
Video: https://www.facebook.com/arif.kassim.9/posts/1298616223597865

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/oct/12/myanmar-mass-graves-mystery-surrounds-deaths-of-hindu-villagers-dirty-tricks-rohingya
Oct. 12: Shaikh Azizur Rahman write in the Guardian "A group of Hindu women who crossed into neighbouring Bangladesh from Myanmar after surviving the attack claimed the Myanmar military carried out the massacre. However, when they were subsequently returned to Myanmar by security forces, they offered a different version of events, blaming Rohingya militants" (incorrect - this was said repeatedly inside the Hindu camp in Bagladesh). "Rohingya refugees have accused the Myanmar government of playing “dirty tricks” over the killings."

Human Rights Watch, September 27, dismisses the claims as "playing politics with the dead" - something only the "Rohingya" are allowed to do here.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/27/burma-playing-politics-dead

Saturday, January 6, 2018

A Challenge to the Media on Myanmar "Fake News"

Adam Larson (aka Caustic Logic)
January 6, 2018
edits Jan. 7, 9, 12

I'll start with what inspired this post: a "news" story in The Record, December 8: Fake news on Facebook fans the flames of hate against the Rohingya in Myanmar, by Annie Gowen. "For Buddhists in Myanmar, even a quick scroll through Facebook's news feed provides fuel for hatred and nationalistic fervor," writes Gowen.

Firstly, these stories and view may not be fake. As Gowen summarizes:
"According to the posts, international news and human rights organizations are falsely accusing the military of carrying out atrocities against the Rohingya to help terrorists infiltrate the country, kill Buddhists and carve out a separatist Islamic province."
From the bit I've seen, this puts their views pretty well. It's alleged Zatw Htay used doctored photos regarding the burning of villages. That could be. I haven't seen these, but I guess it's not the picture shown below?

<add 1/7>The Star reports on this, I had seen it in passing. The photo is dubious on the face of it but hard to read. I may try harder at some point. And as it happens, the woman in the photo was just seen among witnesses giving this story, looking just as distinct and in the same clothes, minus the head towel. That's definitely weird, fake news, and overly fake in fact. It casts doubt on the story told there, but doubt is just that.

So both sides have used false images in this battle of ideas. Rule of thumb: any purported photo is suspect. The fires are set mainly at night, etc. Who's behind it will come down to other, less conclusive evidence, and to the other clues setting the overall context; if the army really is storming and massacring villages, they're probably the ones torching as well. If ARSA-types are faking stuff and committing their own crimes, they're the likely culprits. I think we can all agree on that.<end 1/7>

Otherwise these views could be untrue, intentionally or not. And like anyone, these people can also tell the truth, in whole or in part. From what I see, with some research and a lot of prior work on similar situations, that quote is a pretty good summary of the reality of events. Sound crazy? Here's my overview of what's known vs. what's possible, or just see the three examples that constitute the essence of this challenge (see below). 

Next, it's not usually "news" spreading this interpretation of events. It's mainly in the form of social media comments by persons, if often citing government and pro-government media sources. These reports get scant attention in the outside world, so maybe their being shared is a favor that can help bring balance. 

Gowen, on the other hand, directly writes what's called news, at the Washington Post and wherever else. Along with many others calling the other side liars, the information they push had better not be fake, or this Gowen piece would be like the clock being called black, by the kettle.

Here, regarding Myanmar's atrocities against the Rohingya, the news I've seen is based on two things:
- The reality of a lot of refugees and a lot of burned places. There are two competing stories for this, each with a certain logic and some evidence. But in the "news," one story is just laughed off the table to start with, as the other raised in its stead as the evident fact.
- The basis of the above-described sorting of claims: accepting without question the stories from those rushing the border in a potentially fake crisis. They describe arguably ridiculous barbarity against innocent Muslims, of a kind Islamists engaged in a conflict will report anywhere, a kind we should have developed some skepticism about long ago.

This plus using the right form and words, including some small facts and some prior claims wrapped around the current claims, so they appear like evident truth, stated more than fairly - this is what forms what Gowen would call regular, non-fake news. And it's bite-sized, not too complex, like my rambling crap. 

Three Massacre News Stories and the Challenge
With just some research, I can already spot at least three areas where this breaks down and the news is exposed as fake. Or, rather.... it's wrong somehow. The vast majority of such claims can't re verified or proven wrong like this - they're just a huge pile of uncertainty. The fact that I can pin down this many weak spot so easily suggests to me there's a serious problem with the truth content of the accepted stories.

The challenge is three-part. After each case is explained briefly (relatively), the question is posed which of those accepted but conflicting stories is "fake news or, rather ...(whatever we could also call it)." I'll be trying to get answers on Twitter or wherever, mainly from Annie Gowen to start. Links forthcoming... 

1) Kha Maung Seik Massacre Story Change 

Did you know some witnesses regarding these massacres have changed their stories? One of the earliest mass-killings to be reported was at Kha Maung Seik or Fawira/Foira/Fakira Bazar and/or Ye Baw Kya village (same area, unclear). It was just minutes into the current conflict that started with ARSA raids on security posts, early on August 25. Look it up - there are two drastically different yet eerily similar stories of this event (two sample links for each below), citing the same witnesses but at different times, in different contexts. Both stories appear in stories most would call news and consider true. But they can't both be true.

One story was told first, in the Muslim camp at Kutapalong, Bangladesh, at least by September 4 (photos date with a story run September 6, from Reuters reporter Simon Lewis:

Some 20 survivors, both Muslim and Hindu, swore army soldiers and Buddhist locals teamed up to kill Muslims and Hindus alike. But for the survivors, it just brought them closer together. Eight attractive young Hindu women/girls (as least as young as 15, but married w/kids per local norms, and at least as old as 28), and their few kids - that's all that lived from the Hindu side, as luck would have it. Did the regime and Buddhist killers spare them for some reason? Well, they had since converted to Islam, and fled with some Muslims who also survived (it seems more on that side did, and tending to be male and single enough). They all lived together in the Muslim camp. 

These same eight women were shown, singly and in different combinations, in several videos and pimped to different reporters, always telling the same basic story, but with varying degrees of clarity on who the black-masked killers really were (presumed government/Buddhist but sometimes less sure), and sometimes mentioning the strange religion-switch that accompanied their unusual survival. (Reka Dhar said she doesn't know who hacked her husband to death, but some nice Muslims agreed to help her and others escape "because we promised them we would convert to their religion.") They don't mention getting re-married since their husbands were killed, allegedly because they refused to help the Buddhists to kill the Muslims. “They asked my husband to join them to kill Rohingya but he refused, so they killed him,” said Anika Bala, 15. Six months pregnant, she said Muslims helped her get to Bangladesh." (see here for reports)


Anyway, after people recognized these young ladies saying strange and horrible things on TV,  they had calls placed (not the story, a guess - people in the camp noticed a problem) and the women and their kids (all of them) were separated from the Muslims and transferred to a Hindu camp. Here they first gave public accounts of the other story, by at least September 16, when this video (still at right) was published: black-clad ARSA Islamists shouting Allahu Akbar overran the nearest army post, then headed straight to their unprotected homes. These men massacred the girls' families, cutting their throats and dumping them  in pits, calling it their way of celebrating the feast of Eid.* Only these prettiest 8 were spared as too valuable to just kill, but their husbands were slaughtered as they were made to watch. The girls were forced to convert to Islam. Some were then "married" to some of militants, and presumably raped repeatedly under that pretext. But it was a way to survive, and the deal saved the lives of 8 or 10 of their children (one at least is a baby brother of a girl who was just newlywed, not a mother yet). (no, he's missing, likely dead)

* Eid al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice, marks the end of the Hajj season. It was marked by most Muslims on Sept. 1 or 2 last year. This is August 25, a bit early. But I read that Saudi Arabia started an extended Eid celebration on August 24. And who pays ARSA's bills? (added 1/12)

This story they told, both in the Hindu camp and back in Myanmar. So maybe under duress by the regime? (this guy thinks so, and got it run on the Guardian. Add 1/12: Human Rights Watch also doesn't like their story - without mentioning these girls, they call this a government accusation, complaining "no one has been able to independently verify the Burmese government’s most recent allegations" with bodies "allegedly" found). That pressure to lie can also exist in the Hindu camp, apparently, and no kind of pressure to lie can exist in a Muslim camp, with people who wind up married to/living with the 8 pretty converted widows who by luck survived?

<add 1/9>Here's a detailed account of their ordeal, as told upon returning to Myanmar in October. Consider this:
The Hindus were kept together with Muslims at the Kutuparlaung refugee camp and forced to wear burqas, the traditional dress of Muslim women. At about 1pm, foreign media (speaking in English) conducted interviews. The Hindus were told to tell the media that men and their families were killed by the army and ethnics. They had to flee fearing that they would be killed by the army troops. They were threatened that their children’s throats would be slashed unless they said as they were told.
<end 1/9>

Foreign media was brought in to hear their story from locals at Kha Maung Seik, and see some of the 45 decaying bodies that had been found based on tips from the women. This degree of closure was only achieved on September 25, with another 50 or so anticipated bodies still not located at the time. There hasn't been a public update since. 

Two of several resultant news stories, from AFP: http://indianexpress.com/article/world/rohingya-crisis-hindus-recount-massacre-in-myanmar-as-mass-graves-unearthed-in-rakhine-state-4863922/
Another from Reuters, noting they had earlier run a conflicting story:  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya/myanmar-finds-more-bodies-in-mass-grave-u-n-seeks-rapid-aid-increase-idUSKCN1C01GT

Challenge: which story was "fake news?" Or rather ... which story is a lie, obscuring the truth of an actual massacre? You want to call those alleged massacre survivors liars? Okay, they must be in one version. But it seems no one wants to make a clear call here. HRW and Amnesty have been handed these reports, and probably some strenuous denials and counter-claims, and are still waiting until that gets clearer, and might wait forever to decide what happened at Kha Maung Seik and make any kind of noise about it.

2) Maung Nu Massacre Date Change
Annie Gowen herself reported on a massacre in Maung Nu village that's become central since then. Back in mid-September, it was front page news, and the first English-language news story I've found to mention the event. Quite a scoop. 

"Fortify Rights, a Southeast Asia-focused human rights organization, estimates the death toll in Maung Nu and three nearby villages to be 150," Gowen writes. But how and when isn't very clear.  The story relates several days of "horror" in Maung Nu, starting with the worst, it seems, on August 25, with a massacre by the army, killing enough that "blood flowed in the streets." But many survivors were left, only threatened that they must leave soon. One guy was shot through the hip but lived and hid in the forest. On day 2, bodies were seen being hauled away on a boat. On day three (August 27), the wounded guy's mother joined him in the woods. On days 4 and 5 the rest of the villagers grew more worried until on day 6 everyone decided to leave, before there could be another massacre.

This is no fluke in reporting or a single confused account; it's presented as the distillation of several people spoken to: "Nearly a dozen villagers from the Maung Nu hamlet who escaped recounted their last hours in their homes and the long journey that followed."

Well that's great, but Human Rights Watch and all other news reports, based on dozens of stories say it was only two days later on August 27 that the main massacre there happened. As they describe it, it's a pretty singular event one would be unlikely to forget.


HRW report, October 3, citing 14 witnesses agreeing on the August 27 massacrehttps://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/03/burma-military-massacres-dozens-rohingya-village


From these, I have 14 shady witnesses here, needing still to work in Gowen's. Comparing now, she gives 6 names. All are new to that list. Boat captain Mohamed Zubair is the one I remember seeing, cited by HRW as a peripheral witness to the pre-massacre boat thing, so I didn't include him. 5 others were retired before the final version came out? My list will grow by six. (note, soon after: the list is updated now, 20 witnesses, 15 cited for a massacre on the 27th, six against (with the boat captain alone appearing in both sets, with the same story but taking on a different context in each version.)

Killer officer "Bajo" here is "Baju" in later sources, like HRW. That's the same name and guy, skinny and tall, but a different story. HRW also says he managed bodies "after the fighting ceased," which was early on the 25th). Some say homes were burnt and people were shot while fleeing at this time, but it's not clear if any civilians were massacred then. The victims were all "young men," perhaps killed in the clashes. Like Gowen, HRW heard the corpses were taken away with a boat Baju had to requisition from a talkative Rohingya, Mr. Zubair. 

But this is all a prelude to the massacre of August 27. HRW heard Baju also led this, herding over 100 people (87 men in one story, plus their women and children) into two houses and butchering them methodically, with just a few dozen survivors. No one in Gowen's pool of interviewees mentioned this.  Her whole story compressed: 



Challenge: there's little need to ask here - it's probably Gowen's early version that's fake. Or rather, if either is fake, both probably are. Isn't at least this version fake? What else can explain such a drastic omission? Considering the above and below cases, it seems to me like a moment of plan B tripping over plan A.

Important side-note: in Maung Nu, we hear a very similar death toll - around 90-100 in most versions - to the number of Hindus killed in Kha Maung Seik. We also hear that the bodies were strangely removed, trucked somewhere else... I suspect they PLAN to say they were taken to Kha Maung Seik, buried there and passed off as Hindus, and they'll suggest all claims otherwise, including from those 8 Hindu women, are "fake news." See here. They would also have to toss their August 25 government massacre of Hindus story under the bus as more "fake news," but that story seems pretty dead anyway. 

If this is the case, anyone helping promote the refugee camp story of the Maung Nu massacre would be helping launder a genuine and brutal massacre.  For what it's worth. 


3) Tula Toli Massacre: Problems with the Prelude 
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are not exactly news, but sort of, and supposedly quite a bit better. They report on the massive Tula Toli massacre of August 30, where witnesses say about 1,000 or more civilians were butchered in a cruel and strange system before the village was torched. This is the biggest massacre reported by far, their flagship story. I have some general problems with the evidence in this case, collected here.

Both groups also heard of a preceding massacre and burning in the village across the river on August 28, from which Rohingya fled to Tula Toli, swimming southeast, some only to be killed there later. Those who lived through the Tula Toli massacre - a "handful" of 18 or 20, or around 75 who've spoken to the media - mainly say they did so by swimming back across to this other village. At least two alleged witnesses survived both massacres by making that swim both ways. 

So why do HRW and Amnesty disagree on the name of the village hit first? They agree, as witnesses told them, it was a Rohingya town, or it was their part that was burned. But AI heard it was called "Wet Kyein," while HRW heard it was "Dual Toli." 

That might matter greatly. HRW heard Wet Kyein was a Rakhine village, maybe because it was (if just partly). But they heard it was in a different area where houses were not burned (Rakhine/Buddhists spared.) So why was AI wrong? The government in Myanmar agrees with them, as does a UN map and a US Army map I found - that Wet Kyein is across the river on the east bank. But like HRW, the government says Rakhines of the Mro sub-group lived there, or at least in the area of town where at least 30 homes were burned by ARSA militants, mid-day on August 28.

See: http://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2017/12/tula-toli-massacre-where-is-wet-kyein.html

In the January 6 update there, see how I found some evidence some Rohingya Muslims also lived in Wet Kyein, including one who was "a former ward administrator in Badakar village" nearby "and had been working with local authorities on regional development activities." He was beheaded, apparently by Islamist insurgents for working with the government, in December 2016. So Rohingya lived there, despite what HRW heard, and were reportedly killing each other.

But I'm inclined to believe there were Rakhine homes too, as the government and HRW say, in a mixed village scenario that seems fairly common. The fast-breeding Rohingya might function like the cranberry juice is all the mixed fruit juices you'll see at the store (It gets mixed in with everything!). The proportions of each ethnic group, their relations, etc. aren't clear at the moment, but here we see the ARSA promoters deceptively shifting that name off the burned-down area.  That suggests it's they who have something to hide here, not the alleged Army-Buddhist killers with their rape huts and burn pits. And from the risky hassles they've taken to confuse and fuse it into the Tula Toli story, the Wet Kyein massacre (??) might be a fairly big deal they're worried about.

I suspect an ARSA gang raided the Buddhist area, killed and maybe kidnapped some infidels, and then laundered that in two different ways, shifting mid-stream: to AI in October, they used the village's real name but described it as Rohingya and attacked by the army. To HRW in December, they carefully moved that name, and re-named the burned village. That could be wrong, and even proven wrong, perhaps. But considering this strange confusion, and my years of prior research, it's a pretty good hypothesis. It deserves to be addressed and debunked carefully, or accepted if it's borne out. Instead, I predict it will be ignored.

Challenge: can anyone show that HRW had it right, that this is some honest confusion, or find where all the Rakhine homes really were and then show they're un-burnt as claimed?

On Stories that Spread Hate
If these massacres like Tula Toli, Maung Nu, and the first version of Kha Maung Seik are fake - or if they're true, either way - these stories are dangerous. If true, they need told, but when atrocities against Muslims are reported in Islamist media channels, on Facebbook and elsewhere, they don't even need to call for violence themselves. The people who matter know what this means and what should be done. Blood is required. 

Such claims, supported grisly images and shocking details, elicit emotion and circumvent critical thinking among jihad-minded people around the world. They scrape up what they can, money for guns, a few friends, whatever to support the struggle in wherever. With the "news" stories of Setember to December, that includes Myanmar or "Arakan" bigger than ever. The freed Hindu women from Kha Maung Seik say some of the black-clad men who commiited the massacre were groups of foreigners, speaking languages they've never heard. How they would get there isn't clear, but there are ways. Was that true? Are more on their way? 

Any foreigners fighting in Myanmar would be attracted there, as everywhere, by reports and claims of atrocities against their fellow Sunni Muslims. Or maybe it's the money, the prospect of pretty new "wives," or whatever, but they cite the brutally slain kids and women of massacre like Tula Toli, Maung Nu, and Kha Maung Seik, as with Houla in Syria and so many others before. They can link to news stories like these as proof, and even as a sort of tacit encouragement from the establishment they know runs the media.

But as I've noticed for some time, those "news" stories are pretty much written by Islamist activists playing witnesses (or playing with them in some cases). They're just handed in and copied into a "news" story designed to make the claims sound plausible and supported by clear precedents - similar stories accepted already, etc. That's stenography, circular reasoning, and some twists of deception. Some of it might be true on accident, or where the sources happen to not be lying, but at its heart that's fake news. It's not guaranteed to be false, but it's extremely vulnerable to that.

In these stories -  that become quite stupid once you look at them closer - Myanmar's army and militant Buddhist monks and villagers next door are blamed. As the latest agents of Satan holding back the Muslims people from reaching their destiny and trying to crush them out of existence, the alleged killers or those who worked with them can now be killed with just the same cruelty or greater. Also, collaborators within the Muslim community are considered enemies and killed when the chance arises (see Dec. 2016 as cited above, and Dec. 2017).  There are fatwas saying so and that's all that matters to these guys.

And if the infidels are killed, they can and might be claimed as innocent Muslims killed by Buddhists, repeating the cycle, hopefully, until they finally get their purified "Arakan Islamic State," with or without the help of a Libya-style "No Fly Zone."

Annie Gowen's reporting will be part of what feeds into this. I encourage her, and anyone else seeing this, to now reflect. Are we OK with our current level of responsibility in reporting? Is there no unjustified blood on our hands now or in  the future?

Challenges Met?
I'm not expecting much, but ...
- Alerting Annie Gowen on Twitter re: Q2
- to HRW and AI also on Twitter re: Q3
- to Simon Lewis, Reuters re: Q1

There are more challenges I'll gather here, and encourage some polite but straightforward and non-trollish encouragement - so far, none of these people seems to notice my questions or feel like responding.

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Tula Toli Massacre {Masterlist}

January 4, 2017

people allegedly killed in the Tula Toli massacre
Now we'll have a critical look at the deadliest alleged massacre of the Myanmar government's crackdown in late August. This is said to be on August 30 at Min Gyi, locally known by the Rohingya as Tula Toli, at a kink in one of those south-flowing coastal rivers, as noted sort-of boxed in by it on three sides (see map below).

What's alleged there is the biggest massacre reported, committed by Myanmar government forces augmented by local Buddhists. They murdered well over 500 men, women and children, by  a literal reading of what they say, almost surely over 1,000, and perhaps around 2,000 at maximum. The best rounding is probably "about a thousand." So it's a massive killing spree alleged, probably far bigger than the other next five biggest massacres combined. 

That's the alleged number of innocent Rohingya Muslims killed in Tula Toli. The actual number is unproven, and might be zero. But to the people who shape our thinking, alleged = real here. And this is intended to be their flagship alleged massacre, a name to remember, akin to Houla in Syria, or Srebrenica in Bosnia. Tula Toli seems to take that dark flavor quite well. It sort of rolls off your tongue in two pieces that tumbles across the hut floor in the dark like dice. They come up as a pair of small skulls catching the moonlight, that expand until they fill your world with dread. Tula Toli, grave of the Rohingya. 

And it wasn't just a quantity crime but a quality one - the anti-Muslim regime forces and their African Mercenaries their Alawite Shabiha thugs their Buddhist villager mobs killed people horribly, with the kind of evil innocent Muslims all over the world are often faced with (or so they say). Heads were hacked a lot, and much worse is alleged and likely. The main features people agree on down the board, as if they really saw it or at least memorized a list of features to report:
- between 1,000 and 2,000 civilians were assured safety, but herded to the shore and separated.
- Men were killed methodically for a time as women and children watched. They were put in pits and burned (maybe everyone, but the men especially).
- women were made to stand in deep water for a long time, maybe after being shot-up after being told to run (a number of 30 is given, with others killed in the shooting)
- small groups of these women were taken, with any children they had, to huts where they children were brutally killed, and then the women were beaten and raped and killed, and the huts were set on fire.
- Also some children were killed, especially a group found hiding after the main killing, were maybe hacked-up, and tossed in the river.

Okay? This is presumed to have the stamp of approval of the highest authorities and probably the "militant Buddhist" Aung San Suu Kyi. Government helicopters were used, to shot the village and deliver weapons and uniforms to the soldiers, pro-regime village chief, and Buddhist monks and mobs assembled right there across the river, all teaming up in this barbarity and epic-scale mass murder they would try to deny. No effort to cover it up, like going in plain-clothes, or even Rihingya dress, except to burn the bodies a bit. And this being just the biggest of many they were running daily at the time, just because they're racist and/or tools of satan or who cares why, just make it stop, hold someone accountable and save the innocent Muslims, like we did or tried in Libya, Syria, Iraq, etc...  

Some media presentation:
The Guradian reports on U.S. Holocaust museum study citing this as one of three most prominent massacres. "Myanmar soldiers are accused of slaughtering hundreds of Rohingya, including children, who were gathered on a river bank, and then burning the bodies. “Some small children were thrown into the river,” said a witness quoted in the report. “They hacked small children who were half-alive.” Women were herded into huts, raped, beaten to death (or unconscious) and the huts were burned

Time: "Multiple survivors from his village described how perpetrators slit throats, raped women, and burned “piles” of victims, including infant children. Eyewitnesses estimated a death toll of hundreds in that village alone."

Press Release for HRW repor: “The Burmese army’s atrocities at Tula Toli were not just brutal, they were systematic,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “Soldiers carried out killings and rapes of hundreds of Rohingya with a cruel efficiency that could only come with advance planning.”

Wikipedia page - could use some improvements in what it presents as fact vs. allegation
A Closer Look On Syria (ACLOS) page: incomplete but a brilliant  start (contributors so far: me - mirrors or goes with what you'll see here.)

Tula Toli Massacre analysis - by posts  here:
(An indeterminate amount of detailed study by subject)
Summary
(will be edited and updated some)
Location: on Wikimapia as MinGyi/TulaToli (and see below - but it seems to include other areas - string of homes to the south, and maybe the area to the SW, as labeled here.). Interestingly, it's halfway between Kha Maung Seik and Maung Nu, the two massacres especially that might be the same thing. 16 km south of Kha Maung Seik (app. 90 Hindus killed, buried nearby), 30 km nw of Maung Nu (app. 90+ Rohingya killed, bodies driven off - to the north, allegedly?).

This one is a separate story and allegedly far bigger than both of them combined. Alleged witness accounts suggest a broad range of at least 5-600 to well over 1,000+ civilians were killed, possibly 1,500 or higher, but should no higher than around 2,000 (the upper estimate of total people they rounded up and tried to kill - explained at ACLOS).  It's said only a handful survived, in some places specified as about 20, or 18 in number. Combing the internet, I found perhaps 80 people claiming to be survivors with a story to tell.

The story was a bit slow to emerge, with most detailed reports coming only in December, but at least a couple in English date back to September 7 or so. ...

We hear Myanmar forces with Buddhist mobs, including monks in their robes, slaughtered all these innocent and defenseless Rohingya Muslims, raping and torturing with brutality. It's only on accident they let 18, or maybe 80 or everyone, escape to tell the tale. It sounds fun and all, but it leaves you with a big and hideous crime you'll have to deny and cover up. The government flatly denies it, claiming only the usual, that ARSA militants burned the town themselves and everyone ran off on their own, after also burning some Buddhist and other non-Rohingya villages too, and killing some civilians there, besides security forces (partial explanation at ACLOS). They have no explanation yet for 500-2,000 dead Rohingya at Tula Toli. No one has proof of such a thing yet either, but it's getting believed anyway.

Yet as Human Rights Watch notes: "In an apparent effort to destroy evidence of the killings, soldiers and Rakhine villagers dug pits in which witnesses say they burned the bodies. Many of the women and children died while locked in village houses that were burned to the ground." As far as evidence goes, burning would hide the victims' identity, but would have no chance of erasing the bodies themselves, which would stand as clear proof of the story handed in. The regime could not hide such a crime with such crude methods, and would have no way to avoid at least a few witnesses. So they ran ahead and did it anyway, right? Because their genocidal bloodlust against innocent Muslims knows no bounds, and Russia has their back at the security council, and stuff, right? 

Burning the bodies might obscure details - like the fact that the victims were or weren't actually kidnapped Rakhine villagers, for example. The government might allege this, having found the burn pits and the torched rape huts. I hope those never existed, but in my experience Islamist lies tend to have such hideous "kernels of truth." They don't like to make up crimes out of thin air - they want the cruelty to be real, just reported to the infidels upside-down. So the bigger the better, The worse the better, and as the trick keeps working, the global hate machine get its funding and its "no-fly zones" and "targeted sanctions" and new cool countries like Kosovoa created, and it grows in power. Tula Toli would be a smashing success, so far.

https://frontiermyanmar.net/en/the-destruction-of-tula-toli
By OLIVER SLOW | FRONTIER Myanmar November 30
"one villager in Bangladesh told Frontier that it had been home to about 300 families, of which 60 had been Rakhine and the rest Muslim."

The town was said to be cleansed specifically of  Rohingya, but if their story is untrue, it might even be the upside-down opposite of true.  We know someone burned the Rohingya homes and they all went to the border (or most were killed, as they say, and a "handful" walked to the border). It's alleged Tula Toli's Buddhists were in on the killings, then stayed behind in their un-burnt homes to have the run of the town. That makes them fit for death to Islamists. To be convenient, they might have punished the infidels already ... at the same time as the Tula Toli massacre they were actually the victims of.

Problems with the Prelude 

We also hear the alleged August 30 massacre was preceded by the burning of at least one nearby village, with some degree of massacre as well. But there's a problem with the prelude too.

Sources disagree if it was called Wet Kyein or Dual Toli, but it was across the river the northeast, and was massively burned next time a satellite view was taken (see map above: Wikipedia has it as Wet Kyein). Sources agreed in telling Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch it was a Rohingya village, but disagree on the name. The name AI was given for that place (Wet Kyein) is placed south of Tula Toli by HRW, who heard it was a Rakhine Buddhist town that was suspiciously not burned. The government says Bengali militants burned at least 30 homes in Wet Kyein on the 28th, and it was a Rakhine Buddhist village, apparently just where AI put it across the river, but as Rohingya. This is a potentially important bit of confusion addressed as where is Wet Kyein?
So from this, it seems likely to me ARSA militants raided a nearby Rakhine/Buddhist or maybe mixed village - Wet Kyein, across the river - mid-day on August 28 and perhaps after as well, burned homes, murdered civilians and perhaps took captives, even by boat back to Tula Toli. We can make out this possibility, I suspect, because the story managers used two different methods to try and conceal that event: first using the real name (to AI in or by mid-October), then changing the name of the town, and specifically moving its real name to somewhere else (to HRW in or by mid-December). Then it seems they used the twice-edited event as a prequel to their larger alleged massacre, which... is the kind of thing that could use a fake or laundered prelude to help clarify the "underlying patterns." This amount of map-management (if it's the case) would suggest whatever happened in Wet Kyein might be a big deal the Islamists here are a little worried about, and want to have confused, and fused into one of their own stories.