The Inn Din massacre was a mass execution of Rohingyas by the Myanmar Army and armed Rakhine locals in the village of Inn Din, in

Rakhine State Rakhine State ( ; , ; ), formerly known as Arakan State, is a Administrative divisions of Myanmar, state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Re ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

on 2 September 2017. The victims were accused of being members of the

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA; ), formerly known as Harakah al-Yaqin (), is a Rohingya insurgent group active in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. According to a December 2016 report by the International Crisis Group, it is led by ...

(ARSA) by authorities. An investigation by Myanmar's military concluded on 10 January 2018 that there was indeed a mass execution of Rohingyas in Inn Din, marking the first instance where the military admitted to

extrajudicial killing An extrajudicial killing (also known as an extrajudicial execution or an extralegal killing) is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, ...

s during their "clearance operations" in the region.

Background

The

Rohingya people The Rohingya people (; ; ) are a stateless nation, stateless Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who predominantly follow Islam from Rakhine State, Myanmar. Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Ban ...

are an

ethnic minority The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...

that mainly live in the northern region of

, and have been described as one of the world's most persecuted minorities. In modern times, the

persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...

of Rohingyas in Myanmar dates back to the 1970s. Since then, Rohingya people have regularly been made the target of persecution by the government and

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

Buddhists Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE. It is the world's fourth ...

. The tension between various religious groups in the country had often been exploited by the past military governments of Myanmar. According to

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

, the Rohingya have suffered from human rights violations under past

military dictatorship A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which Power (social and political), power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a Polit ...

s since 1978, and many have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh as a result. In 2005, the

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, l ...

had assisted with the repatriation of Rohingyas from Bangladesh, but allegations of human rights abuses in the refugee camps threatened this effort. In 2015, 140,000 Rohingyas remained in IDP camps after communal riots in 2012. On 9 October 2016, insurgents of the

(ARSA) launched their first large-scale attack on Burmese border posts on the Bangladesh–Myanmar border, with a second large-scale attack on 25 August 2017, leading to new "clearance operations" by the Myanmar government, which critics argued targeted civilians.

Prelude

After ARSA's attacks on 25 August 2017, a troop of around 80 Burmese soldiers arrived in Inn Din on 27 August to recruit local Rakhine

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

villagers for "local security". Members of the

Tatmadaw The Tatmadaw, also known as the Sit-Tat, is the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include ...

(armed forces), the Border Guard Police (BGP) and the local Rakhine community began torching Rohingya homes, whilst keeping Rakhine homes intact. The destruction in Inn Din was confirmed by satellite evidence obtained before and after 28 August. Several hundred Rohingya villagers fled from the west hamlet of Inn Din to the mountains in the east, many with the intent to escape to

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary Human settlement, settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for in ...

s in

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

Massacre

On 1 September, many of the villagers who were hiding in the mountains began descending to the beaches of Inn Din in search of food. Armed soldiers and paramilitary members arrived and detained ten men at the beach, whom they accused of being members of ARSA. According to local Rakhine eyewitnesses, the men were moved to the village school at around 5:00 pm, photographed, given a change of clothes, and fed what was to be their last meal. The next morning, on 2 September, the men were photographed again by the military, kneeling on the ground. They were then marched up a hill and shot in the head by soldiers. Soe Chay, a retired soldier and local who supposedly helped dig the mass grave, told

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

that each victim was shot two to three times. According to Chay, some of the victims managed to survive and made noises whilst being buried alive, prompting a group of local

paramilitaries A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

to hack them to death with

machete A machete (; ) is a broad blade used either as an agricultural implement similar to an axe, or in combat like a long-bladed knife. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the Spanish language, the word is possibly a dimin ...

Victims

The victims were all villagers from Inn Din and included fishermen, an Islamic teacher, and two high school students. * Abulu (17), high school pupil * Rashid Ahmed (18), high school pupil * Abul Hashim (25), shopkeeper, father-of-three * Nur Mohammed (29), farmer-fishmonger * Abdul Malik (30), village imam, father-of-five * Dil Mohammed (35), fishmonger, father-of-one * Shoket Ullah (35), fisherman, partially deaf * Habizu (40), farmer-fishmonger, father-of-three * Abdul Majid (45), grocer-farmer, father-of-eight * Shaker Ahmed (45), fishmonger, father-of-nine

Military investigation

Through a

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

post by Senior General

Min Aung Hlaing Min Aung Hlaing (born 3 July 1956) is a Burmese army general who has ruled Myanmar as the chairman of the State Administration Council, chairman of the State Administration Council (SAC) since seizing power in the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, Fe ...

, the

(armed forces) announced they would investigate reports of a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

in the village of Inn Din. On 10 January 2018, the military released their findings in the investigation through a second Facebook post by Min Aung Hlaing. The post stated that there was indeed a mass grave in Inn Din containing bodies of Rohingyas, but that no massacre took place and that those in the grave were "Bengali terrorists" that soldiers had detained in the village cemetery. According to the post, the Rohingyas in the grave were executed by security forces on 2 September 2017, after they were determined to be "Bengali terrorists". This was the first time the military acknowledged extrajudicial killings perpetrated by soldiers during their "clearance operations" in the region. A statement on behalf of the military was posted by Min Aung Hlaing to his Facebook page on 10 April 2018, announcing that seven soldiers had been convicted of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

for their participation in the executions and sentenced to ten years in prison with hard labour in a "remote area". However, they were all released from prison in November of that year.

Arrest of Reuters journalists

On 12 December 2017, members of Myanmar's police force arrested

journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo at a restaurant in

Yangon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

after inviting them to dinner. The pair was charged with possessing classified documents in violation of the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a possible sentence of 14 years in prison. The two journalists were independently investigating the mass grave found in Inn Din prior to their arrest. A police witness, Moe Yan Naing, later testified that their arrest was a case of

entrapment Entrapment is a practice in which a law enforcement agent or an agent of the state induces a person to commit a crime that the person would have otherwise been unlikely or unwilling to commit.''Sloane'' (1990) 49 A Crim R 270. See also agent prov ...

, and that their arrest was intended to intimidate journalists. After the court held its final preliminary hearing of their case, on 8 February 2018, Reuters released all the findings in their journalists' investigation. On 3 September 2018, the two journalists were found guilty by a court and sentenced to seven years in prison, despite international criticism. An appeal was filed on 5 November 2018 by the journalists' lawyers. On 7 May 2019, the two reporters were

pardon A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...

ed by President

Win Myint Win Myint ( ; born 8 November 1951) is a Burmese politician who served as the tenth president of Myanmar from 2018 to 2021, when he was removed from office in the 2021 coup d'état. He was the speaker of the House of Representatives from 2016 ...

and released from prison. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have received international awards for their reporting of the Inn Din massacre, and were included in Time magazine's Person of the Year 2018, which recognised persecuted journalists as "guardians" in a "war on truth".

Government responses

: Prior to Reuters' publication, Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay responded to the alleged abuses at Inn Din by saying that the government would investigate them if there was "strong and reliable primary evidence". After the publication was released, Zaw Htay announced that the government would take "action according to the law" against the perpetrators of the massacre, but noted that it was not a response to the publication. Burmese authorities later investigated the Rakhine village administrator who spoke with Reuters. The office of the

President of Myanmar The president of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar () is the head of state and constitutional head of government of Myanmar. The president chairs the National Defence and Security Council and normally leads the Cabinet of Myanmar, the ...

announced on 13 February 2018 that 16 suspects had been detained in connection to the massacre. Among them were four military officers, three Tatmadaw soldiers, three policemen, and six villagers. Seven of the suspects were later found guilty of murder. : Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

, spoke to the U.N. Security Council on 13 February 2018, calling the Myanmar government's denial of the massacre "preposterous" and the restrictions on travel in Rakhine State a deliberate act to "prevent access to an organisation that might bear witness to their ecurity forces'atrocities". Haley also called for the release of the two Reuters journalists who were allegedly imprisoned for their coverage of the massacre. After charges were brought against the two Reuters journalists, the American embassy in

expressed its disappointment, urging authorities to "allow the journalists to return to their jobs and families" and calling the decision "a setback for press freedom and the rule of law in Myanmar".

References

{{Reflist, 30em 2017 crimes in Myanmar Rohingya genocide 2010s in Rakhine State Public executions Massacres of Muslims in Myanmar Massacres in 2017 21st-century prisoner of war massacres September 2017 crimes in Asia Violence against men in Asia Events that led to courts-martial 21st-century mass murder in Myanmar People executed by Myanmar Deaths by firearm in Myanmar People executed by firing squad Deaths by live burial