BANGKOK — Myanmar's army was not the only group that slaughtered civilians in the country's volatile west last year, Amnesty International said in a new report accusing ethnic Rohingya insurgents of massacring dozens of Hindus during an escalation of a long-running communal conflict in Rakhine State. Amnesty says interviews it conducted with refugees in Bangladesh and in Rakhine state confirmed that mass killings carried out by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) took place in a cluster of villages in northern Maungdaw Township at the time of its attacks on police posts in late August. [42]

Fourth, Amnesty International sent a forensic anthropological expert 31 photographs taken in Kha Maung Seik on 23 and 24 September 2017 by a person who was present when bodies were discovered in mass graves. "After careful review of evidence obtained in Bangladesh and Rakhine State, Amnesty International has concluded that ARSA fighters are responsible for the massacre," Amnesty said, calling for Myanmar to grant U.N. investigators access to the conflict area to document atrocities by both ARSA and the military. “Our latest investigation on the ground sheds much-needed light on the largely under-reported human rights abuses by ARSA during northern Rakhine State’s unspeakably dark recent history,” said Tirana Hassan, Crisis Response Director at Amnesty International. Accountability for these atrocities is every bit as crucial as it is for the crimes against humanity carried out by Myanmar’s security forces in northern Rakhine State.” Massacre in Kha Maung Seik

At around 8am on 25 August 2017, ARSA attacked the Hindu community in the village of Ah Nauk Kha Maung Seik, in a cluster of villages known as Kha Maung Seik in northern Maungdaw Township. The perpetrators of this heinous crime must be held to account," CNN quoted Tirana Hassan, Crisis Response Director at Amnesty International, as saying.The ARSA was able to recruit some villagers to help carry out the attack, but the "overwhelming majority of Rohingya did not", Amnesty said in its report, which it based on interviews with survivors and photographic evidence of the scene analysed by forensic anthropological expert.The Myanmar government has declined to comment on the Amnesty report. [31]

According to the list that identified by name, biographical data, and village the 99 Hindus reportedly killed, given to Amnesty International by Hindu community leaders, all of the 45 excavated bodies have been identified as people from Ah Nauk Kha Maung Seik or people who were visiting Ah Nauk Kha Maung Seik at the time of the attack. It is unclear why the alleged attack was carried out, but some suspect the militants believed the Hindu community sympathised with the predominantly Buddhist government's anti-Rohingya stance. Citing interviews with eight survivors, the rights group said dozens of people were rounded up, blindfolded and marched out of town by masked men and Rohingya villagers in plain clothes. After the survivors returned to Myanmar in October, however, they “unambiguously asserted that Rohingya, believed to be ARSA fighters, were responsible.”

Amnesty International said the changing testimony was “largely explained by the pressures and threats to personal safety that they faced while in Bangladesh.”

The group said it also based its determination on other evidence, including consistent descriptions witnesses gave of the attackers and forensic analysis of 31 photographs of exhumed bodies. At the same time, the ARSA engaged in "scores of clashes with security forces".The Myanmar government has blamed the ARSA for attacking border guards and sparking a violent crackdown which has seen hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims flee Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh.On August 25, 2017, ARSA militants attacked a Hindu village in Maungdaw and rounded up some 69 men, women, and children, the majority of whom were killed, "execution-style", according to survivors who spoke to Amnesty.The same day, 46 members of a Hindu community in a nearby village disappeared. [50] UNLAWFULL KILLING OF SIX HINDUS IN MYO THU GYI

While the massacre in Kha Maung Seik village tract is the most egregious incident of human rights abuses by ARSA that Amnesty International has documented, fighters perpetrated other killings and violent attacks against members of Hindu and Buddhist ethnic groups.
Amnesty International releases a report claiming it has evidence that ARSA insurgents massacred nearly 100 Hindus in the village of Kha Maung Seik on August 25, 2017, the same day ARSA attacked security forces in Myanmar's Rakhine State.