{"id":83013,"date":"2016-11-21T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T12:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=83013"},"modified":"2016-11-16T13:44:08","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T13:44:08","slug":"this-muslim-purge-in-myanmar-is-so-awful-you-can-see-it-from-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/11\/this-muslim-purge-in-myanmar-is-so-awful-you-can-see-it-from-space\/","title":{"rendered":"This Muslim Purge in Myanmar Is So Awful You Can See It from Space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A satellite image from Nov. 10 shows a Muslim village burned down in an arson spree allegedly committed by Myanmar\u2019s army. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 400 buildings in Muslim-majority parts of Myanmar have been destroyed.
Credit: Human Rights Watch\/Courtesy<\/p><\/div>\n

If Myanmar\u2019s notorious army is to be believed \u2014 that\u2019s a very big if \u2014 its soldiers are facing a highly deranged adversary.<\/em><\/p>\n

15 Nov 2016 – <\/em>Along Myanmar\u2019s marshy coastline, villages keep going up in flames. All of them belong to the Rohingya, a horribly persecuted Muslim group. The arsonists? Muslims themselves, according to the army.<\/p>\n

The Rohingya, we are told, are burning their own homes to attract well-armed government platoons \u2014 and then sprinting at them with knives, berserker style, so that they can get mowed down<\/a> by the dozens.<\/p>\n

This narrative defies logic. But it\u2019s hard to challenge directly \u2014 and that\u2019s how the army likes it.<\/p>\n

Myanmar\u2019s military has turned much of the Rohingya\u2019s homeland into a no-go zone for aid workers and non-compliant journalists. It has become, in the words of one expert, an \u201cinformation black hole.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Relieved of prying eyes, the military is aggressively purging Muslim villages that have been infiltrated by an \u201cextremist violent ideology.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

These raids began shortly after the October emergence of a poorly armed Rohingya militant group<\/a> numbering in the hundreds. According to government reports, a series of clashes have killed about 17 officers and more than 65 militants.<\/p>\n

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Simply not plausible that villagers "burned their own houses". https:\/\/t.co\/NYrqOqyUNS<\/a><\/p>\n

— Richard Horsey (@rshorsey) November 13, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n