Returning to Rakhine State still unsafe for Rohingyas: HRW

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said the massacre in Hoyyar Siri underscores that returning to Rakhine State is still unsafe for Rohingyas, even in areas now controlled by the Arakan Army.

Over the past decade, the Myanmar military has committed ethnic cleansing, genocidal acts, and other atrocities in Rakhine State that have forced over a million Rohingya to flee.

Bangladesh is now hosting over 1.3 million Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char Island. 

"Myanmar's military seemed indifferent to the plight of the Rohingya civilians at Hoyyar Siri in 2024, and since then the junta has done nothing to address their broader human rights concerns," said Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch. 

"Concerned governments should urgently press both the Myanmar junta and the Arakan Army to respect the rights of all communities in Rakhine State."

Two years after the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group killed and wounded hundreds of Rohingya Muslims and burned down their village in Myanmar's Rakhine State, the survivors remain unable to return home, with many effectively detained, Human Rights Watch said in a report released from Bangkok on 18 May.

The Arakan Army has rejected responsibility for the massacre at Hoyyar Siri (Htan Shauk Khan in Burmese), Buthidaung township, which involved grave violations of the laws of war amounting to war crimes.

The 56-page report, "'Skeletons and Skulls Scattered Everywhere': Arakan Army Massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Hoyyar Siri, Myanmar," documents the 2 May 2024 attack, in which Arakan Army fighters deliberately fired on unarmed villagers who were seeking safety after the armed group advanced on two Myanmar military bases in the vicinity.

Details of the massacre only began emerging more than a year later, after some survivors fled to Bangladesh and Malaysia.

"The Arakan Army's murder of hundreds of Rohingya civilians and the burning of their village in Rakhine State in 2024 took the armed conflict with Myanmar's junta to a new level of depravity," said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"Today, the massacre's survivors are effectively detained by the Arakan Army, which has neither provided redress nor held those responsible to account."

Human Rights Watch interviewed several dozen witnesses and survivors, corroborated their accounts by satellite imagery, and analyzed and verified photographs and videos.

Hostilities between Myanmar junta forces and the Arakan Army in Rakhine State resumed in November 2023.

Both sides have been responsible for serious abuses, including targeted attacks on civilians, arson, and unlawful conscription.

The findings contradict the Arakan Army's claims in a letter to Human Rights Watch that its fighters only targeted military personnel or members of Rohingya armed groups.

Human Rights Watch compiled a list of over 170 villagers, including about 90 children, who were killed or are still missing after the Hoyyar Siri massacre. The actual death toll is likely much higher.

Human Rights Watch analysed and verified photographs and videos showing human remains at three separate sites in the village. At two of these sites, civilian clothing is visible among human remains.

Satellite imagery corroborates witness accounts that Arakan Army fighters set fire to Hoyyar Siri and, after taking control, destroyed the entire village.

The fighters also robbed villagers of their cash and jewelry. One man detained by the Arakan Army said that he and other detainees were beaten and tortured, including with electric shocks. Several witnesses reported that fighters abducted Rohingya women and girls from the village.

In February 2025, the Arakan Army ordered all surviving Hoyyar Siri residents to relocate to a makeshift camp nearby.

Villagers who later managed to flee to Bangladesh told Human Rights Watch that they were denied freedom of movement, subjected to forced labor, and faced severe shortages of food and medical care.

They said that in August, the armed group organised a controlled media visit to Hoyyar Siri in which survivors were forced to provide false testimony to exonerate the Arakan Army for killing the civilians.

The Myanmar military and Arakan Army should immediately end attacks on civilians, release all civilians unlawfully detained, and provide redress to victims and their families, Human Rights Watch said.

The Arakan Army in its letter to Human Rights Watch said it would facilitate inquiries by international human rights groups deemed credible and independent.

Both parties should cooperate fully with independent investigations, including by granting access to the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, the United Nations special rapporteur on Myanmar, and human rights groups.