Satellite images show hundreds of buildings on fire in Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday. The NGO highlighted that new images from the Rohingya Muslim village of Chein Khar Li in Rathedaung town show 700 buildings ablaze. HRW has demanded that the Myanmar government allow independent investigators to determine the sources of the fires.

“This new satellite imagery shows the total destruction of a Muslim village and prompts serious concerns that the level of devastation in northern Rakhine state may be far worse than originally thought,” HRW’s Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said. “Yet, this is only one of 17 sites that we have located where fires have taken place. Independent monitors are needed on the ground to urgently uncover what is going on.”

The images from Chein Khar Li were taken on August 31. They show 99% of the village destroyed, the Human Rights Watch said.

Source: Human Rights Watch

The organisation further said that independent monitors were needed to assess allegations that the Rohingya refugees who had fled to Bangladesh had committed serious human rights violations.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar government on Saturday said more than 2,600 houses had been burned down in Rohingya-majority areas in the country, Reuters reported. Authorities blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army for the arson.