Chut Pyin Massacre | Project Khthon

Chut Pyin Massacre
Rathedaung, Rakhine State, Myanmar

20°34′12″N 92°38′33″E

Published in February 2026

By Michelle Arnetta

Incident Date: 27th of August 2017

Victim(s) Profile: Rohingya villagers in Chut Pyin

Introduction

The Rohingya, a Muslim minority group in Myanmar, has been subjected to a long history of persecution by the government and Buddhist nationalists. A significant portion of this persecution includes violence and arson in Rohingya villages, including Chut Pyin (also known as So Farang).

Events

This account is based on the 2018 report “We Will Destroy Everything” by Amnesty International. Tensions were rising in Chut Pyin, as the Rohingya were used as scapegoats for the Rakhine villager Than Htay’s death and the destruction of a nearby bridge. This tension culminated during the early morning of 25 August 2017, when the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked security force posts across villages in northern Rakhine state, one of which was Chut Pyin. The Myanmar authorities blamed this on the Rohingya, and in retaliation the army killed, raped, and tortured Rohingya villagers, alongside deliberately burning down their homes.

While Wikipedia reports the incident date as 26 August 2017, the source it cites does not mention this anywhere, and it contradicts an overwhelming amount of other sources placing the attack on 27 August 2017. Written Evidence from Fortify Rights (BUR0026), written in October 2017, describes the Chut Pyin massacre occurring around the same date and time as the Maung Nu massacre: 10 AM on 27 August 2017. A more recent source from Amnesty International reports that army soldiers, local vigilantes, and Border Guard Police (BGP) entered the village later in the day at 2 PM (“We Will Destroy Everything,” 2018). This is corroborated by witness testimonies from The New York Times, claiming that the killing started around 1-2 PM.

Soldiers opened fire on civilians and set the village ablaze by shooting rocket-propelled grenades; moreover, armed civilians stabbed Rohingya villagers with knives and long swords (Fortify Rights, 2017). Testimony from Rohingya villagers revealed other violations committed, including men being executed or taken away, and women being raped outside their homes or in the Chut Pyin schoolhouse.

Casualties

ABC News reported 130 people dead, including women and children, whereas the written evidence from Fortify Rights places the death toll in Chut Pyin as exceeding 200 people. In 2018, Rohingya survivor Ahmad Hossain approximated the death toll at 358 people, which aligns with other estimates from international human rights groups (Schwirtz, 2018).

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the Chut Pyin massacre’s victims, taken from a video by SITU/Amnesty International:

SITU/Amnesty International

Visual Evidence

The following is a comparison of Google Earth satellite imagery of Chut Pyin (27 December 2016 vs. 16 September 2017), indicating that the village was burned down at some point between these dates:

Amnesty International

Moving onto the subject of mass graves, ABC received this video from a human rights monitor. Allegedly, these graves were dug in the village of Ah Htet Nan Yar, which is south of Chut Pyin, while other bodies were burned. They are reported to contain a total of 10-20 bodies from Chut Pyin village, with 2-3 bodies buried in each pit (Cochrane, 2017).

The video recorder claimed that the Myanmar Army entered the village 20-25 minutes before the video was taken, placing the time of the video at approximately 2:20-2:25 PM. The video of the burning must have also been taken at a distance that is feasible to walk within 20-25 minutes, although it is unclear whether the video of the mass graves was taken in the same location. However, the mass grave section of the video showed signs of rain, potentially indicating that enough time has passed for the weather to change. Here are some stills from the video, one allegedly showing a mass grave and the other showing the village burning:

ABC

For reference, these are the locations of the Chut Pyin and Ah Htet Nan Yar village tracts relative to each other. According to the MIMU Pcode dataset, the coordinates of Ah Htet Nan Yar village are 20°33'20.2"N 92°38'36.7"E.

Google Earth

SITU/Amnesty International provided an additional video recording the burning of Chut Pyin. A portion of the video was taken from behind a fence. Other parts of the video appear to have been taken by someone standing on a watery area with plenty of vegetation, although the size of that body of water is unclear. Here are some stills from that video:

SITU/Amnesty International

Furthermore, SITU/Amnesty International mapped out the school and BGP base related to the massacre’s events. The coordinates of the school are 20°34'17.43"N 92°38'32.65"E, and the coordinates of the BGP base are 20°34'16.46"N 92°38'32.71"E.

SITU/Amnesty International

Satellite imagery from SITU also showed rapid excavation next to Ah Htet Nan Yar. Although no definitive conclusions can be drawn from this, it remains coherent with the earlier testimony of mass graves near the village. The coordinates of this location appear to be approximately 20°33'21.47"N 92°37'33.71"E.

SITU/Amnesty International

The Topographic Visualization layer from the Copernicus Browser could also offer valuable geolocation insights. The lighter the shades of green, the higher the land elevation is. Two mountain ranges are visible near the two villages: one to the east with more parallel mountain chains, and one to the west with a less even structure.

Copernicus Browser

Estimating the time at 2:25 PM (and assuming the other video was recorded at a similar time), this appears to be the sun direction when the videos were taken. Past 1 PM, the sun remains toward the west.

SunCalc

Looking back on the video stills, it appears that the sun consistently shines from behind the cameraman. Hence, the sun location is suggestive of eastern ridges in all videos, unless these videos were taken at an earlier time of day (unlikely).

While a one-to-one match is difficult to confirm due to differences in angle, some resemblance can be seen between the mountain ridges in the videos compared to the 3D views of Google Earth and Copernicus DEM. While the mountain ridges in video 2 appear very consistent, it is possible that the stills from video 1 were taken at different locations (potentially, the mass graves are closer to Ah Htet Nan Yar as the article implies?).

Google Earth (zoomed out)

Google Earth (zoomed in)

Copernicus DEM

Video 1 Mountain Ridges

Video 2 Mountain Ridges

With these resources, it remains a difficult task to definitively geolocate the videos.

Other visual evidence includes photographs from Amnesty International showing survivors of the Chut Pyin massacre: Fatima, who suffered a gunshot wound, and Shara Jahan, who suffered burning throughout her skin and clothing.

Amnesty International

The New York Times also provides a picture of a Chut Pyin survivor, Fir Mohammad, and his gunshot wounds:

The New York Times

Suspected or Known Aggressors

Perpetrators include the 33rd Light Infantry Division of the Myanmar Army, alongside Rakhine Buddhists from a neighboring village who were provided weapons and training from the Myanmar military (“They Gave Them Long Swords,” 2018). Major Aung Myo Thu, a field commander in this army division, was testified to be “threatening the Rohingya with dire consequences if they failed to accept the National Verification Card (NVC) or if there was any ARSA-related activity,” as well as physically present during the Chut Pyin massacre (“We Will Destroy Everything,” 2018). BGP Corporal Kyaw Chay was also identified by Chut Pyin survivors as being involved in international law violations (“We Will Destroy Everything,” 2018).

According to The Guardian and Amnesty International, the independent testimony of numerous Rohingya villagers has implicated Aung Thein Mya, the Chut Pyin village administrator (Schwirtz, 2018; “We Will Destroy Everything,” 2018). Among other things, he has been accused of rape, murder, torture, harassing the villagers, working closely with the military and BGP, and leading the vigilantes in Chut Pyin’s burning. He has denied the allegations and claimed to be elsewhere during the time of the Chut Pyin massacre, although these claims are demonstrably false.

Here are some alleged photographs of Aung Thein Mya:

The New York Times

Conclusion

Ample evidence is available for the atrocities committed in Chut Pyin, including coherence between independent witness testimony and visual evidence. Unfortunately, perpetrators are unlikely to face punishment; regardless, we urge them to take accountability. We also hope the international community will raise their awareness of the Chut Pyin massacre, acknowledged as “one of the [Rohingya ethnic cleansing] crisis’s worst atrocities” (“We Will Destroy Everything,” 2018)