0:00:00 > 0:00:01This programme contains distressing and graphic accounts and images
0:00:01 > 0:00:03of violence from the beginning.
0:01:18 > 0:01:23These people have just crossed the border. They are in no man's land
0:01:23 > 0:01:29and being driven from their homes. Now, they are waiting for permission
0:01:29 > 0:01:35to enter Bangladesh. The Rohingya are people that neither country
0:01:35 > 0:01:45want. What happened in your village? Transocean macro they just burnt
0:01:45 > 0:01:50their houses.These are some of the survivors. They are hungry, sick and
0:01:50 > 0:01:55scared. Across the river, the rest of the Brett campaign of terror
0:01:55 > 0:02:03going on. --A deliberate. A campaign from which no one is safe. But what
0:02:03 > 0:02:09we don't know is how many people have been killed. We do have some
0:02:09 > 0:02:15idea of how many have been burnt and chased out of their homes. These are
0:02:15 > 0:02:19just a tiny fraction of the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people
0:02:19 > 0:02:24who have fled. In our investigation, we are going to focus on the events
0:02:24 > 0:02:34of one day, of one massacre in one village. Its name is Tula Toli.
0:02:34 > 0:02:41Since August, or than 600,000 people have sought refuge in the camps in
0:02:41 > 0:02:46blanket F. -- Bangladesh. People who brought little with them but the
0:02:46 > 0:02:49nightmarish memories of their experiences at the hands of the
0:02:49 > 0:02:54Burmese military. We have come here to find survivors of the Tula Toli
0:02:54 > 0:02:59massacre. We have spoken to six of them, we have cross-referenced their
0:02:59 > 0:03:08testimony with video evidence... Absolutely horrific pictures. With
0:03:08 > 0:03:12maps of the local area, as well as with interviews collected by human
0:03:12 > 0:03:16rights organisations. What emerges is a picture of systematic violence.
0:03:16 > 0:03:21Violence that has been described as a textbook example of ethnic
0:03:21 > 0:03:22cleansing.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47Using a satellite photograph of the area, a Rohingya Alba showed me how
0:03:47 > 0:03:53the massacre unfolded. -- elbow. The village of Tula Toli consist of a
0:03:53 > 0:03:58number of settlements surrounded on three sides by the meandering flow
0:03:58 > 0:04:02of a river. In previous days, soldiers had set fire to other
0:04:02 > 0:04:07villages on the opposite bank. At Wednesday morning, the 30th of
0:04:07 > 0:04:12August, the crossed into Tula Toli. There was panic.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50Everyone mentions the river. With the soldiers advancing from the
0:04:50 > 0:04:53north-west and the police post to the south, many of the villagers ran
0:04:53 > 0:04:58east. It ended up on the riverbank. They were trapped.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55And Hugh yourself on the other side of the river? This woman showed us
0:05:55 > 0:05:59where she and others from across the river at a point downstream where it
0:05:59 > 0:06:02was narrow enough to cross. They used in under trees and plastic
0:06:02 > 0:06:08canisters as life raft. Did you see this with your own eyes?
0:06:13 > 0:06:17From a heel on the opposite tank, they watched the horror unfold.
0:07:05 > 0:07:13The horrific scenes she witness still be a nightmare. But reform
0:07:13 > 0:07:14witnessed still give her nightmares.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23She watched the bodies of their neighbours children washed up on the
0:07:23 > 0:07:27riverbank. The scene was filmed by another villager.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41The children's names were Rasheeda, five years old, cushion, three, and
0:07:41 > 0:07:42Tahiti, 11 months.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00This woman, her husband and four children or managed to escape with
0:08:00 > 0:08:06their lives. Muhammad was not so fortunate. He and his youngest
0:08:06 > 0:08:11daughter survived but three of her sisters were killed and so was their
0:08:11 > 0:08:12mother.
0:08:45 > 0:08:51The violence began five days before the massacre at Tula Toli on the
0:08:51 > 0:08:5525th of August, when members of a Rohingya militant group attacked a
0:08:55 > 0:09:00number of police post inside Myanmar, killing 12. In response,
0:09:00 > 0:09:05the Burmese military began what they called clearance operations. That
0:09:05 > 0:09:10was three months ago. Boats filled with refugees have been coming over
0:09:10 > 0:09:11ever since.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23The overwhelming majority of people in Myanmar are Buddhist. The
0:09:23 > 0:09:27Rohingya Muslims make up only a small minority over all but in
0:09:27 > 0:09:30Rakhine state, the region that borders Bangladesh, there may be in
0:09:30 > 0:09:36the majority if it were not to the fact that so many have fled. Even
0:09:36 > 0:09:39before the latest violence, the Rohingya of Myanmar were denied the
0:09:39 > 0:09:43most basic rights, the right to vote, the freedom to travel and
0:09:43 > 0:09:46access to decent education and healthcare.
0:09:52 > 0:09:57Now, some of them accused the Burmese government of using the
0:09:57 > 0:10:04attacks by the Rohingya militant as a pretence. A pretext for a vicious
0:10:04 > 0:10:09and indiscriminate crackdown against Rohingya civilians. The Bangladeshi
0:10:09 > 0:10:15authorities monitor what goes on from the other side of the border.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18And I have been told that from the beginning of August, about three
0:10:18 > 0:10:23weeks before the violence started, they noticed an increase in military
0:10:23 > 0:10:29activity on the Myanmar side. Now, if that is true, it would suggest an
0:10:29 > 0:10:33element of preparation for the violence that followed. And this is
0:10:33 > 0:10:36a suggestion that we have heard corroborated some of the witnesses
0:10:36 > 0:10:42we have spoken to well. We were told about an incident that happened
0:10:42 > 0:10:46nearly two weeks before the massacre in Tula Toli. Also before the
0:10:46 > 0:10:52attacks by the militant group known as the Salvation Army which the
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Burmese military claimed prompted their clearance operations.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25Were they trying to recruit people into village? Was there some truth
0:11:25 > 0:11:26to that?
0:11:35 > 0:11:38Witnesses said the policemen were called in by the village
0:11:38 > 0:11:42administrator, and local Buddhist government officials. A few days
0:11:42 > 0:11:45later, the same official called a meeting. Elders from both
0:11:45 > 0:11:49communities were asked to sign a kind of peace Treaty.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59Was that unusual, to be asked to do some like that?
0:12:07 > 0:12:11The Rohingya of Tula Toli saw the document as an explicit guarantee of
0:12:11 > 0:12:15their safety. It is because of this that they stayed in their homes even
0:12:15 > 0:12:19when they saw other villages being burned. Now they believe the
0:12:19 > 0:12:20administrative doublecrossed them.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38Almost everyone we spoke to mentioned this village
0:12:38 > 0:12:44administrator, the local government representative. He would accuse the
0:12:44 > 0:12:48villages of supporting the militants, some said. Others that he
0:12:48 > 0:12:52tried to force them to register as foreigners. Another Rohingya Alba
0:12:52 > 0:12:57told me that before the massacre he and the man had been in regular
0:12:57 > 0:13:02contact. Do you have his phone number? Can you call him?
0:13:06 > 0:13:11Human rights investigators and journalist have been trying to talk
0:13:11 > 0:13:15to this man for months. None have managed to contact him until now.
0:13:19 > 0:13:25Mr Hussein lost a son and three grandchildren in the attack. Now,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29over a crackly phone line, he accuses the village administrator of
0:13:29 > 0:13:34complicity in the massacre.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18At the end of the conversation, Mr Hussein seems unconvinced. Do you
0:14:18 > 0:14:20believe him?
0:14:37 > 0:14:48The majority of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims have, by now, already fled.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51Dispossessed and stateless, the mud soaked camps of Bangladesh are what
0:14:51 > 0:14:59they must for now call home. The Burmese government says its military
0:14:59 > 0:15:02operations just across the border from here in Rakhine State are a
0:15:02 > 0:15:08response to attacks by militants on the 25th of August. But what about
0:15:08 > 0:15:13those reports of troop movements weeks before the Rohingya militants'
0:15:13 > 0:15:18attacks? Well, we're on our way now to meet an officer in the
0:15:18 > 0:15:21Bangladeshi border guard who might know more about this and who might
0:15:21 > 0:15:31be willing to talk to us. Hello, Major. How's it going?Fine.Good.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36The Major said he wasn't authorised to speak to the BBC on camera but we
0:15:36 > 0:15:40did have a conversation of camera and he said I could quote him with
0:15:40 > 0:15:44the following, that they saw from around the fifth of August a huge
0:15:44 > 0:15:48concentration, those are his words, of Myanmar military in the border
0:15:48 > 0:15:52area. He said apart from burning people's homes they extorted
0:15:52 > 0:15:56valuables and took their money. I asked him the purpose of all this,
0:15:56 > 0:16:05he said they're trying to make Rakhine State Rohingya free. There
0:16:05 > 0:16:08are members of the Rohingya salvation army in these camps. We
0:16:08 > 0:16:14spoke to two of them. They said they lacked weapons. Experts who studied
0:16:14 > 0:16:18the group tend to agree. They almost certainly carried out some of the
0:16:18 > 0:16:21attacks that sparked the latest violence but they were unlikely to
0:16:21 > 0:16:25have been capable of the co-ordinated action that riveted to
0:16:25 > 0:16:31them by the Burmese military. Here's another thing the officer we spoke
0:16:31 > 0:16:35to at the border Force said to me, he said there's some merit in the
0:16:35 > 0:16:39claim that at least some of those attacks were staged. He said to our
0:16:39 > 0:16:42knowledge there are hardly any active members of this group. But
0:16:42 > 0:16:46even if the militants did do all the things the Burmese government said
0:16:46 > 0:16:51it did, nothing surely could justified the horrific nature of the
0:16:51 > 0:16:58response that followed. By late morning on the 30th of August on the
0:16:58 > 0:17:02riverbank at Tula Toli, dozens of people had already been murdered but
0:17:02 > 0:17:07it wasn't over yet. Some villagers had escaped by swimming across the
0:17:07 > 0:17:10river, but many remain behind, especially younger women who had
0:17:10 > 0:17:16been separated from the rest by the soldiers. Those who survived endured
0:17:16 > 0:17:23an ordeal of almost unimaginable horror.
0:18:34 > 0:18:34Severely
0:18:34 > 0:18:40burnt and wounded, she managed to crawl to safely and eventually
0:18:40 > 0:18:44escaped under cover of darkness. She came to Bangladesh with her
0:18:44 > 0:18:48seven-year-old daughter. She was beaten by the soldiers but survived.
0:18:48 > 0:18:53The others did not. One of her children, she said, was burned to
0:19:07 > 0:19:11at least one other survivor of the Tula Toli massacre has reported that
0:19:11 > 0:19:17her young child was grown into a fire. Others had infants torn from
0:19:17 > 0:19:18their arms.
0:19:45 > 0:19:50This woman is only 30 years old. The men who raped her and killed her
0:19:50 > 0:19:55children were soldiers. But she, like others, told us that non-
0:19:55 > 0:19:59Rohingya civilians took part in the attack that day as well, demanding
0:19:59 > 0:20:00money and valuables.
0:20:14 > 0:20:19I wondered about the Buddhist village administrator. No one we
0:20:19 > 0:20:23spoke to say he personally took part in the attack and it seems unlikely
0:20:23 > 0:20:28that a local civilian official could have stopped the powerful Burmese
0:20:28 > 0:20:32military. But there remains the question of whether he deliberately
0:20:32 > 0:20:36misled the Rohingya villagers into believing they would be safe in
0:20:36 > 0:20:41their homes. Hello, sir. It's the BBC here. Just to say we're
0:20:41 > 0:20:45recording this call. Can I ask you why did you not warn the villagers
0:20:45 > 0:20:47that the army was going to come in?
0:20:59 > 0:21:03The people here say that you wanted the Rohingya out of the village,
0:21:03 > 0:21:05that you wanted them gone.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27The Burmese government doesn't regard the Rohingya Muslims as
0:21:27 > 0:21:33citizens of Myanmar. Stuck in the camps in Bangladesh without official
0:21:33 > 0:21:38status, it will be hard for them to return home even if they felt it was
0:21:38 > 0:21:43safe to do so. The United Nations has called this ethnic cleansing.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45Others prefer the term genocide.
0:21:50 > 0:21:55By whatever name you call it, the massacre at Tula Toli was a
0:21:55 > 0:21:59monstrous crime. A crime that Burmese authorities are not
0:21:59 > 0:22:06investigating. Every evening on the border, more people try to cross
0:22:06 > 0:22:10from Myanmar to safety in Bangladesh. New arrivals say their
0:22:10 > 0:22:13villages are still being burned, that there are still being traced
0:22:13 > 0:22:17and terrorised from their homes. We asked the Burmese government for a
0:22:17 > 0:22:21response to the evidence of a massacre at Tula Toli, they never
0:22:21 > 0:22:26got back to us. For now the violence continues with impunity. If it goes
0:22:26 > 0:22:30on like this there won't be many Rohingya left in Myanmar, and
0:22:30 > 0:22:43perhaps that's exactly what the Burmese government wants.