Myanmar army 'beheading children and burning people alive' according to eyewitnesses: Telegraph

 The reports followed a week of violence and "inflammatory" government statements that led the UK’s ambassador to the UN to urge Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto head of Myanmar's government, to “set the right tone”.

The Nobel peace laureate has faced international condemnation for failing to address ongoing rights abuses of the Muslim minority and for online statements by her “information committee” that have been accused of inflaming public sentiment against the wider Rohingya population and aid workers in the country.

"Aung San Suu Kyi hits a new low with this potentially deadly inflammatory propaganda. Leadership failure," Phelim Kine, a deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, said on Twitter.

The government of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has condemned the international community and foreign media for focusing on the plight of the Rohingya while ignoring the impact of the violence on ethnic-Rakhine Buddhist and other non-Muslims in the state.

Northern Rakhine state erupted into fresh violence on August 25 when the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) – since declared a terrorist organisation by the government - launched deadly attacks on 30 security posts.

The attacks came just hours after a commission appointed by Aung San Suu Kyi and led by Kofi Annan delivered its recommendations on how to end long-running ethno-religious tensions in Rakhine. The assaults by Arsa were widely condemned by the UK and the international community.

On Friday Bangkok-based rights group Fortify Rights published harrowing eye-witness accounts from Rohingya who escaped the village of Chut Pyin in Rathedaung township.

They claimed around 200 Rohingya men, women and children had been killed by Myanmar's security forces and local ethnic-Rakhine villagers.

Soldiers reportedly arrested a large group of Rohingya men, marched them into a nearby bamboo hut, and set it on fire, burning them to death, the group said.

"My brother was killed - [Myanmar Army soldiers] burned him with the group,” Fortify Rights quoted 41-year-old Abdul Rahman of Chut Pyin as saying.

“We found [my other family members] in the fields. They had marks on their bodies from bullets and some had cuts. My two nephews, their heads were off. One was six years old and the other was nine years old. My sister-in-law was shot with a gun.”

On Friday the Myanmar military reported that some 400 people - around 370 Rohingya insurgents, 13 security forces, two government officials and 14 civilians had died in the violence since August 25.

The military and government have previously said security forces find it difficult to distinguish between insurgents and civilians. On August 30, a request by British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, prompted the 15-member UN security council to discuss the situation during a closed-doors meeting.

Mr Rycroft said the members had condemned the violence and called on all parties, including Ms Suu Kyi, to de-escalate the situation in Rakhine.

"We look to her to set the right tone and to find the compromises and the de-escalation necessary in order to resolve the conflict for the good of all the people in Burma," Mr Rycroft said.

A spokesman for the government could not be reached yesterday, but previously told The Telegraph that the information committee represented the views of the entire government – not just those of Ms Suu Kyi.

He also said that the government was aware of the need to protect “innocent Muslims” while tackling Arsa.

Mark Farmaner, director of London based NGO Burma Campaign UK, welcomed the security council discussion but called on the British Government to go further in its objections to the current situation in Rakhine.

“Supporting Aung San Suu Kyi and reforms in Myanmar doesn’t mean the British government has to stand by and do nothing as hundreds of Rohingya are slaughtered by the military,” he said.

(Photo: A Rohingya ethnic minority from Myanmar carries a child in a sack and walks through rice fields after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border CREDIT: AP PHOTO/BERNAT ARMANGUE)