Hopes for democracy in Myanmar are this week at their most vulnerable point since the National League for Democracy swept to electoral victory last year, as the military continues to ignore Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s calls for it to abide by the rule of law in northern Rakhine State and allegations of rights violations grow.

In an interview that bodes very badly for people in Rakhine and across the country, U Zaw Htay of the President’s Office flatly denied allegations of arbitrary arrests and torture in the state’s north as troops there continue to hunt for those behind three deadly assaults on border police bases on October 9.

On October 25, meanwhile, a video posted on YouTube by a group calling itself Faith Movement claimed that Rohingya rights activists were behind the attacks, the first time any organisation has taken responsibility for them since they occurred.

Speaking in the Myanmar language, one of the armed men in the video says the aim of the organisation is to secure rights for Rohingya people and that the group’s targets are the “colonial military”, not ethnic Rakhine civilians.

U Zaw Htay’s comments, published in The Irrawaddy yesterday, came on the same day The Global New Light of Myanmar reported that a 60-year-old man had died while in custody, the third suspect in the attacks confirmed by authorities to have done so.

The presidential spokesperson also said the reason authorities were denying access to those seeking to deliver aid to thousands of Muslims believed to have been displaced during counter-insurgency operations in the state was that they wanted to “push them back” to their villages.

Such a move is in clear breach of internationally recognised humanitarian principles, and a UN representative has voiced concern over the policy.

“The allegations of arrests made without evidence, and of torture, are totally wrong. We haven’t done that. We deny those accusations,” U Zaw Htay said.

It is a risky game indeed to personally vouch for the actions of thousands of soldiers and police in a remote region – particularly in what is an extremely tense situation.

As has been widely acknowledged, authorities have every right to carry out a lawful investigation into the brutal attacks on the border guards and bring the culprits to justice under the rule of law, but they do not have a right to abuse innocent civilians in the process. Furthermore, those arrested must be treated in accordance with internationally recognised rights protocols.

The Myanmar military has an exceptionally bad record when it comes to human rights. In refusing to countenance the possibility such abuses have taken place, U Zaw Htay has backed himself into a corner, from which it will be very difficult to extricate himself later.

Hopes for any kind of credible, independent investigations into the deaths in custody have been set back considerably by this, for were such an inquiry to find things other than the spokesperson has claimed it would be a considerable loss of face for the government.

And the admission that the government is deliberately denying aid – including food – to vulnerable civilians in order to push them back to their villages to make it easier for security forces to conduct their “clearance” operations as they hunt for insurgents amounts to a very clear acknowledgement that rights protocols are being ignored.

Pierre Peron, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Myanmar, said, “In all cases such as this, it is important that the return or resettlement of displaced people is completed through an informed, voluntary, safe and dignified process that is in line with international standards.”

Mr Peron said aid organisations “urgently” need access to all affected people in all areas to assess humanitarian needs and deliver life-saving assistance.

“The UN and humanitarian partners are ready to provide assistance to all people wherever it is needed. Humanitarian need is our only measure and impartial aid is our only objective,” he added.

U Zaw Htay’s comments came during a week that has seen a number of developments regarding northern Rakhine, but also increasing rumour, fear and speculation, accompanied by denials by the authorities – at times angry ones, according to some of those who have questioned ministers over official versions of events.

Aid agencies say as many as 12,000 Muslim people were displaced during the security operations, with Reuters reporting on-the-ground sources saying border police had ordered the entire village of Kyikan Pyin village – about 2000 people – to abandon their homes on October 23. Villagers have reported that empty properties have been looted by both state security forces and Buddhist residents.

And yesterday The Myanmar Times reported that dozens of Muslim women have allegedly been raped by state security forces during the counter-insurgency operations, according to rights groups citing “credible” sources.

These allegations, as with those of other abuses, have been impossible to independently verify because no outside observers are being given access to check. This has led to mounting demands for access.

U Zaw Htay suggested in his interview that both the UN and international media had been misled or “confused” by propagandists from the Rakhine Muslim population who were disseminating lies mixed with facts.

It is highly likely that his claim of misinformation has some truth to it. Activists within the Rohingya community, especially those operating online, have done their cause little favour by regularly reporting rumour as if it were fact.

However, the weight of evidence that atrocities are taking place is increasing and if the authorities have nothing to hide, there seems no reason outside observers should not be allowed to enter the area.

“Whenever facts on the ground are disputed, access helps to establish the truth,” Laetitia van den Assum, a member of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, wrote on her personal Twitter account yesterday in response to the report on the rape allegations.

Such a principle would seem obvious, yet the government still refuses to allow access – not just to journalists but also humanitarian actors.

Sources involved in negotiations for this access say such decisions are being made by the military and not Myanmar’s democratically elected civilian administration, and that State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is effectively powerless in the current situation.

Whether she is now actively seeking outside support in her calls for a more measured approach and for security forces to abide by the rule of law in their operations remains unclear.

But this week a group of high-profile UN rights experts, including the special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, urged the government to address the allegations of rights violations.

“In the aftermath of the attacks, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has rightly called for proper investigations to be conducted and for no one to be accused until solid evidence is obtained,” Ms Lee said.

“Instead, we receive repeated allegations of arbitrary arrests as well as extrajudicial killings occurring within the context of the security operations conducted by the authorities in search of the alleged attackers.”

The outright denial by U Zaw Htay that such violations are occurring at all suggests that even with international backing, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has no real negotiating power on this issue at all and the military will continue its operations regardless.

According to sources receiving on-the-ground reports from the Maungdaw area, the initial military response allegedly involved sweeping raids and on-sight shootings of anyone – including women and children – deemed a threat.

But these sources said that has now changed to a more targeted approach by security forces, focusing on village heads and other key community figures from whom the authorities want to extract information about insurgents suspected to be living among ordinary villagers.

That would tie in broadly with what U Zaw Htay described in his interview when he said, “The police force has the responsibility of clearing [villages], and the military of accompanying them as an auxiliary force. In forests or mountainous areas, the military takes [overall] responsibility. This way, we get information from administrators and community elders in villages as well as from investigating those arrested. We then make additional arrests based on this information.”

It is for this reason that the authorities are keen to see those displaced return to their village.

Where the reports from those on the ground and the government differ wildly, however, is that people in the villages say a number of these village heads are returning from interrogations unable to walk, or not returning at all.

For U Zaw Htay to suggest the international community or the Myanmar public should simply believe the government when it denies widely reported abuses highlights how the current administration has little if any more commitment to democratic accountability than its predecessor – whose president, U Thein Sein, U Zaw Htay also represented.

As the hunt for those behind the attacks continues and allegations of rights abuses grow, it becomes increasingly undeniable that those in the international community who have lauded Myanmar’s rapid progress toward democracy have been lured into a trap of optimism that is rapidly being exposed as a fallacy.

Ultimately this remains a military regime and the generals have no compunction in showing that when it suits their aims.

It is true that other countries in the world have failed to uphold human rights in the battle against Islamic terrorism. That is to be condemned in itself. But it is important to highlight that there is so far little or no convincing evidence that those behind the attacks on the border police posts in Rakhine had any links to major international terror organisations.

The most recent videos that have emerged from those claiming to be behind the attacks have sought to paint the assaults in the light of ethnic rights for those who identify as Rohingya and to link their fight to that of the recognised ethnic minority groups staging armed insurgencies in other parts of the country.

“I’d like to speak seriously: The war we have today waged to defend ourselves is not a war between Rohingya and Rakhine,” the group spokesperson said.

“We openly let the Rakhine people know we did not destroy lives, properties and religious buildings of Rakhine people and we will never destroy them in the future.”

There may well be an element of damage limitation in such moves, as the Muslim community in Rakhine realise that being associated with Islamic terrorism gives the authorities every excuse to further ramp up abuses against them. However, it remains the fact that for now, any atrocities against civilians being carried out by the military in the name of a fight against Islamic terrorism are happening without any evidence being produced that those behind the assaults are involved in such a cause.

It is vitally important, therefore, that the international community continues to stand behind Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in pressing the military to abide by internationally recognised human rights standards in its operations in Rakhine.

Any real democracy may be further off than many choose to believe, but this country has shown progress in so many ways over the last few years. If that were to collapse now and the military is allowed to entirely ignore its democratically elected leader and ride roughshod over the basic principles of human rights, it will be tragedy – not just for the Muslim population in Rakhine and those civilians suffering in the Tatmadaw’s fights against ethnic armed groups in other parts of the country, but for the entire nation.

Dozens of Muslim women have allegedly been raped by state security forces in northern Rakhine State during counter-insurgency operations there, according to rights groups citing “credible” sources. Tight military controls in the region, including shutting out international humanitarian organisations, means independent verification has not been possible.

Around 30 women are reported to have been raped by security forces in a single village on October 19, according to Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, a Rohingya rights organisation.

Ms Lewa said she had also received additional reports of five girls aged between 16 and 18 being raped in another village on October 25 and two women at another location on October 20.

On October 25, the Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) released a statement saying it was “extremely concerned” over at least 10 alleged rape cases that had been documented by civilians in Maungdaw township since the military operation had begun there, including one woman who was three months pregnant and later suffered a miscarriage.

“The Burmese government is deliberately violating international law and committing crimes that it promised the world they would refrain from,” said U Kyaw Win of the BHRN, referring to the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict.

The reports of widespread sexual assaults come as security forces in the area hunt for those behind three deadly attacks on border police posts on October 9, believed to have been carried out by Rohingya insurgents.

Ms Lewa said, “[The security personnel] look down on women and Rohingya women in particular. These women are very vulnerable, especially when the men have fled the villages.”

A large swathe of northern Rakhine State has been under military lockdownsince the October 9 attacks, with local residents reporting extrajudicial killings, torture, large-scale evictions, and the burning and looting of property.

Many villages are reported by sources on the ground to be lying entirely empty, with an estimated 10,000 Rohingya people believed to have been displaced. In other villages men have fled fearing they will be accused of being insurgents and shot or arrested by authorities, leaving women vulnerable to assault, those sources on the ground have added.

International groups including the UN and INGOs have demanded that the government allow an independent investigation into the series of alleged human rights violations emerging from northern Rakhine State.

Authorities have denied that rights abuses are being perpetrated, and reports have remained impossible to independently verify as even humanitarian and aid organisations are being denied access to the area, where food and medical supplies are running low for tens of thousands of people.

Following calls from UN human rights experts for access to the area, President’s Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay told The Irrawaddy on October 25, “We haven’t done anything lawless.”

Women’s rights organisations have published numerous reports detailing incidents of sexual assault and rape by the Tatmadaw, particularly in ethnic minority areas. Under the 2008 constitution members of the military have impunity for such crimes, something rights organisations have long demanded should be changed.

“The Tatmadaw have a long and well-documented history of sexually abusing women in areas where they operate, so it’s shocking but not at all surprising that these kinds of reports about multiple rapes are coming out of northern Rakhine State. The question is what is [State Counsellor Daw] Aung San Suu Kyi and the government of Burma prepared to do about it because this is a real test of their political commitment to respect rights,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division.

Initial reports of the October 19 mass rape incident in U Shey Kya village began appearing on social media on October 21. The Rohingya Blogger website alleged it had received the names of at least 10 women, including two girls aged 15, who had been raped in that incident. However, Ms Lewa said two separate sets of research conducted by her organisation since then had found the number of alleged victims to been around 30. The names of about two-thirds of the victims have been recorded. The two sets of reports had been consistent with one another, she said, though she added that accounts had differed as to whether the alleged rapes were carried out solely by members of the military or whether members of the Border Police Force had also been involved.

Social media have also included reports of rapes in recent days.

The increasing reports of rape have added to further demands for immediate action.

“First, the government needs to order the Tatmadaw to let the humanitarian agencies and international observers into these areas where the military is running roughshod over the Rohingya. And the government needs to immediately launch an independent investigation of these abuses, leading to the criminal prosecution of any soldiers found to have engaged in such abuses and commanders who looked the other way as their troops committed these crimes,” said Mr Robertson.

“It will not pass the laugh test if the government lets the Tatmadaw respond by itself to these serious charges, because the military have regularly sought to cover up these kinds of crimes by their troops in the past.”

Among all the murky reports to emerge from Rakhine State this week, one thing that is clear: When it comes to the biggest crisis to hit Myanmar since Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian led administration was elected, the military is undoubtedly running the show.

Almost two weeks on from three deadly attacks on border police stations in northern Rakhine State, evidence about who was behind the attacks and their underlying motivation are no more certain. Yet that has done nothing to damp the military’s lockdown, nor to staunch the anti-Muslim rhetoric from the President’s Office.

It is a situation that does not bode well for long-term democratic progress in this country.

Following the deadly October 9 attacks on the border guard posts, the military assumed control over Maungdaw and Buthidaung township. Outside observers have been excluded from the region as security forces carry out “clearance operations” which have sparked great fear among the Muslim population there.

An estimated 9000 to 15,000 people from the Rohingya minority are reported by sources on the ground to have fled their homes, with claims that at least 100 civilians have been killed during military operations, although those numbers remain entirely unsubstantiated due to access restrictions. The military has acknowledged that at least 30 alleged attackers have been killed by security personnel in what senior officers described as a necessary use of lethal force.

Allegations that Muslim civilians have faced extra-judicial killings and seen their villages burned by security forces have also gone entirely unmentioned in the missives coming out of the President’s Office, and have been widely ignored by the local media. Yesterday it was reported that two people arrested in relation to the attacks had died in custody, with authorities blaming asthma-related complications.

Meanwhile according to the UN, an estimated 3000 people from the region’s Buddhist population have also fled their homes and being looked after by state authorities.

Reports from the government have focused entirely on support being offered to the ethnic Rakhine villagers. A representative for the Mynmar Red Cross, which is providing assistance in Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Sittwe townships, said he had no knowledge of the displaced Muslim population.

Aid organisations have stressed that they are deeply worried about more than 70,000 people in the Muslim-majority northern townships of Maungdaw and Buthidaung who are being kept from receiving humanitarian assistance, including vital food rations, because the military refuse to allow agencies access while their operations are ongoing.

Meanwhile those elsewhere in the state are also facing restrictions, humanitarian actors say, as fears among local staff and uncertainty about protocol hampers access and supplies.

These clampdowns are risking the lives of people in already-vulnerable communities, despite the fact that authorities have acknowledged that the only violence to have occurred in recent days had broken out when they entered villages on a clearance operation and allege that they have brought the wider security situation under control.

Indeed the entire “terrorist” narrative is being questioned, not only by international observers, who point to the fact that the attacks were targeted at security officers not civilians, but even by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi herself.

“We don’t know the full details. We don’t know when those six months were,” she told the Hindustan Times while visiting India earlier this week, referring to the government’s reports that arrested suspects had said during interrogations that the man organising them had received six month’s training in Pakistan.

“And we are also told he had been receiving funding from various Islamic countries. That is just information from just one source, we can’t take it for granted that it’s absolutely correct,” she said.

But the state counsellor’s attempt to bring some balance to the terror narrativehas been of little avail. The matter has continued to dominate both the national and social media agenda.

Even as updates from the President’s Office make no mention of the perilous situation the Muslim population in northern Rakhine State unquestionably face as security forces search their villages for assailants, those behind the department’s daily updates are less reticent about depicting Muslims as violent, extremist liars.

On a post on the official government website from October 18 entitled “Voices from government employees, local people in Maungdaw over deadly attacks”, which did not cite a single Muslim voice, stories such as the following – purportedly the words of an evacuated school teacher – reinforced the demonisation of the Muslim population.

“I have been here since 2007 as a middle-school teacher and a high-school teacher. The government told us that people here often resorted to violence because they were not educated. Now, they are learning from us and some of them are good at English. However, they posted lies and religious instigation on the internet,” she added. “Later, helicopters from the Tatmadaw evacuated us to a safe place.”

It is concerning, but not unexpected, when military chiefs in Rakhine State start making biologically and mathematically questionable assertions about the Muslim population rapidly increasing because some people practise polygamy.

However when the president of a democratically elected government widely seen to be a proxy for one of the world’s best-known rights campaigners-turned-politician starts churning out such pernicious writings, it is alarming.

The president may wear a civilian gaung baung, but the messages coming from his office show every sign of having been penned by a propagandist wearing a military cap.

In an October 14 statement on events in Rakhine State the previous week, the government noted the following: “According to the findings of the interrogations, the attacks in Maungdaw were intended to promote extremist violent ideology among the majority Muslim population in the area. Using Maungdaw as a foothold, this was an attempt to take over the areas of Maungdaw and Buthitaung. For this, they received significant financial support from extremist individuals in some Middle Eastern countries. This funding was not provided by particular organisations, but was provided secretly through contacts between individuals.”

If a single paragraph were to encapsulate the fears of Rakhine people and the wider population, exacerbated by various provocateurs for various nationalist and political reasons, that paragraph would be it.

And it appears to be working. It is not just social media users who are buying into and promoting the “our military will protect us” message.

National newspapers, many of them staffed by journalists who have bravely questioned the military’s motivations and stood up to oppression in the past, have almost entirely failed to question what is happening to the Muslim population in Rakhine State – the vast majority of whom have shown absolutely no appetite for militant uprising in the past four years.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s protests in India that it is very unclear who and what was behind the October 9 attacks are little more than a whispered acknowledgement of uncertainty contending with the booming onslaught of military-backed propaganda.

The international community is, behind the scenes, horrified by the lack of access and expressing serious concerns about the extent of the rights abuses potentially now being perpetrated against the Muslim population in the north.

Yet, public demands for access have so far failed to highlight these very genuine concerns.

The Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, chaired by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, finally had a formal briefing from the government on October 19, but as yet its only statement was on October 14, deploring the attacks, but making no mention of possible or alleged reprisals.

Meanwhile Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, on October 19 noted a “sober response” by the security forces in northern Rakhine State, an observation that appeared to be made more on trust than fact, given he also stressed concerns that UN staff were not being given access to the area and people concerned.

Whether such trust is misplaced remains to be seen. However even Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has this week stressed the insecure state of democracy in Myanmar right now.

“We as a nation are struggling to make the democratic culture take root,” she told reporters after meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on her visit to New Delhi.

“We too have many challenges to face, but we are confident that these challenges can be overcome because our people are determined to overcome them.”

It is to be hoped she is right, but such determination will only succeed if it is rooted in the principles of human rights and respect for others, rather than fear and politically motivated propaganda. For now, in Rakhine State, the latter appears to be winning.

Rights groups are concerned that “blatant falsehoods” in state media could exacerbate tensions in Rakhine State, after The Global New Light of Myanmar published a denial that Muslim residents face restrictions on their movements and are refused access to vital services.

The opinion piece in the state-run newspaper follows deadly attacks on three border guard posts in Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships on October 9. The government has blamed the attacks on Islamist terrorists, prompting widespread fear in Rakhine State and beyond. Videos of unclear origin have since appeared online with armed men calling for jihad and for Rohingya rights.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has vowed the investigations into the attacks will be “fair” and according to rule of law.

But yet-to-be confirmed reports of extra-judicial killings and widespread destruction of Muslim villages in northern Rakhine State by the military as they hunt for the culprits has led to fears that the attacks will be used to justify further rights abuses on the more than 1 million Rohingya who live in the state.

The Global New Light of Myanmar article calls on “international communities to review their policies, towards the atrocities of the extremist attackers” and contrasts what it calls the “neighborliness” of Bangladesh “against a backdrop of heightened fabrications that a number of Muslims living in Rakhine state face discrimination, restrictions of movements and denial of access to services”.

The restrictions under which the Rohingya minority are forced to live have been widely attested to and condemned by numerous organisations, including the UN.

Responding to the article Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch Asia division, said “the reality is the Rohingya face severe restrictions on movements” which curtail their ability to earn a livelihood and access basic services.

“The government should realise that its efforts to elicit sympathy and cooperation to find those who attacked the border police camps in Maungdaw are undermined when its mouthpiece prints blatant falsehoods about the continued restrictions Rohingya face in Rakhine State,” he said.

Amnesty International said that their observers had witnessed firsthand the damaging impact of the restrictions placed on Muslim communities in Rakhine State.

“Denying the existence of long-standing restrictions on the Rohingya population, and the serious difficulties they create for people’s daily lives, not only ignores the reality on the ground, it will hinder any efforts towards finding durable solutions to the situation in Rakhine State,” said Laura Haigh, Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher.

Ms Haigh cautioned against additional restrictions. “The government has the duty and the right to maintain law and order, however, it must ensure that its response to these recent attack does not further compound the longstanding discrimination and rights abuses that Rohingya in northern Rakhine State suffer,” she said.

Her warning came as the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported yesterday that humanitarian response interventions in northern Rakhine State were being coordinated but were “hampered by movement restrictions”.

Over 40, and according to some reports as many as 90, people – mainly Muslims – have been killed as Tatma­daw troops conduct “clearance operations” in their search for culprits. Hundreds of homes are reported to have been razed with thousands of people feared displaced. Further attacks on police have also been reported.

The Global New Light of Myanmar did not respond to requests yesterday from The Myanmar Times as to what had prompted the article.

Western media are frequently accused by authorities and nationalist activists in Myanmar as being biased in favour of the Rohingya population.

Asia-based publications have generally been less critical; however, on October 16, the Thai newspaper The Nation published a strongly worded editorialheadlined: “The [Myanmar] government and military will have to bear the blame if estranged Muslim community decides to take up arms.”

The Nation’s opinion piece said, “The situation would not have descended to this level if Myanmar had been more even-handed in its treatment of the Rohingya.” It went on to depict recent events in northern Rakhine State in terms of ethnic minority resistance elsewhere in the country.

The Global New Light of Myanmar opinion piece emphasised Bangladesh’s “neighbourly” response to the current situation, including the fact it handed over suspects alleged to have taken part in the October 9 attacks. Around 230,000 Rohingya are estimated to be live in Bangladesh and some of the attackers are alleged to have spent time there.

The state media article also sought to promote Myanmar’s relationship with the EU. “At a time when we are taking effective action to defend against, respond to and defeat all armed violent attacks and attempted attacks in according to the law … the provision of assistance by Bangladesh and the EU in the form of encouragement is an [sic] valuable asset capable of holding the perpetrators ultimately accountable.”

Asked for a response to the article, an EU spokesperson pointed to the latest Council Conclusions on Myanmar adopted jointly by the Foreign Ministers of all 28 EU member states in June 2016, which says, “Restrictions on the freedom of movement should be lifted and unimpeded access to basic services should be ensured for all.”

The spokesperson referred to a previous statement from October 11 in which the EU said it “stands with Myanmar in these difficult moments”, but rejected the implication in state media that the EU statement could be taken as an “encouragement” of the current military response in northern Rakhine.

“The only thing we encourage is a police investigation in accordance with the rule of law as well as responsible action and restraint by all parties,” she said.

Rakhine State officials are reviewing the legality of buildings in a Muslim-majority township as the state government proceeds with a controversial demolition plan that could see dozens of mosques destroyed.

Buildings in Maungdaw will be the first in the state to be scrutinised to determine if they were legally or illegally constructed, Colonel Htain Linn, Rakhine State minister for security and border affairs, said at a September 24 press conference. He added that no demolition has been started yet, despite several social media rumours to the contrary.

“We will conduct a building verification process according to the law,” said the minister, who is also chairing the committee for buildings management and verification in Rakhine State. The state-level committee was formed on September 12, with district- and township-level committees formed last week.

“If we find that a building was illegally constructed, we will file a lawsuit and follow the court decision,” he said.

The committee is tasked with verifying buildings across Rakhine State and picked Maungdaw township for initial scrutiny because it is situated on a fragile border area with implications for state security, said U Min Aung, head of the Rakhine State municipal development committee and vice chair of the buildings management committee.

“The building verification will be conducted according to municipal law in every town in the state,” he said.

He added that there are more than 3000 illegal buildings in Maungdaw. Those found to be responsible for constructing a building illegally could face a fine or up to two years in prison, he added.

The state’s demolition plan has prompted criticism among human rights groups and self-identifying Muslim Rohingya organisations.

On September 23, 11 international Rohingya groups signed a joint statement demanding the government intervene in the slated destruction “under the pretext of illegal construction”.

Haji Maung Bar, a Muslim community leader from Maungdaw township, told The Myanmar Times that he did not understand why the government would be interested in destroying mosques and Muslim schools built in response to state-imposed restrictions prohibiting groups of more than five people from assembling in Maungdaw and Buthidaung.

“If the government demolishes such ‘illegal’ buildings, they should make other, better buildings for us to continue to be able to pray, go to school and so on,” he said.

Additional reporting by Nyan Lynn Aung, translation by Thiri Min Htun