>> NARRATOR: Tonight on "Frontline," Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was seen as Myanmar's hope. >> I understand that many of our friends throughout the world are concerned by reports of villages being burned. >> NARRATOR: Now she's accused of standing by as the army waged a violent campaign against the Rohingya minority. >> They are being massacred. She is walling herself off from reality. >> NARRATOR: And keeping the United Nations out. >> She was saying that these were all made-up stories. I couldn't believe my ears and I thought to myself, "She must be kidding me." >> NARRATOR: With secret footage and eyewitnesses... >> Just 15 minutes ago, brutal military came and set fire to the village. >> NARRATOR: "Frontline" investigates... >> This was a textbook case of ethnic cleansing. >> NARRATOR: "Myanmar's Killing Fields." ♪ ♪ >> Tonight's program contains extremely graphic and violent imagery. Viewer discretion is advised. ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. This is the largest refugee camp in the world. Reporter Evan Williams has come here to investigate a campaign by the Myanmar military that has driven hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from their homes. >> WILLIAMS: So arriving in the camps, it's really hard to convey the sheer scale of this crisis. We've been walking through this main camp for about ten minutes, it seems to go on and on. And everywhere you look, there are more tents, more families, just ridge after ridge of shelters for these refugees. (people talking in background) >> NARRATOR: The mass exodus of the Rohingyas became world news in August 2017. But the military's campaign against them in fact began years earlier. Since 2012, a small network of citizen activists has been secretly filming the reality of life for the Rohingyas in Myanmar. We've been given hundreds of their videos, some by an international human rights group that helped train them. No one from the network has ever been interviewed on camera, but one agreed, if we protected his identity. He uses the codename "Sabo." >> SABO (in foreign language): (speaking foreign language) >> NARRATOR: "Frontline" spent six months trying to corroborate the footage and other video we gathered... WILLIAMS: >> NARRATOR: ...interviewing scores of witnesses... (speaking foreign language) >> NARRATOR: ...comparing their accounts, and cross-checking them with human rights investigators. >> WILLIAMS: How many patches of blood like this did you see? >> NARRATOR: The Myanmar military denies abuses and says it has been fighting Islamic terrorists. (speaking foreign language) >> NARRATOR: But the videos and eyewitness accounts depict an orchestrated effort to target civilians. Systematic discrimination, state-sanctioned violence, and, ultimately, mass murder. >> WILLIAMS: (woman sobbing) >> SABO: (people talking in background) >> NARRATOR: Muslim Rohingyas have been living in Myanmar's Rakhine State for generations. But the government views them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. In 2012, violence erupted between the Muslim Rohingyas and the Buddhist Rakhines, the majority ethnic group in the region. In response, the government confined 120,000 Rohingyas to ghettos and camps. And then began to impose restrictions on all aspects of Rohingya life. The videos we received from Sabo's network show shuttered mosques and religious schools. And police checkpoints where Sabo says Rohingyas could not pass without written permission or payment. >> SABO: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: For more than 50 years, Myanmar was ruled by a repressive military dictatorship, notorious for human rights abuses, and subject to sanctions by the United States and other Western countries. But by 2015, that was changing. In the country's first free elections for decades, long-time democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory. Although she had limited power, with no effective control of the army, it was seen as a new dawn for Myanmar. >> There was a feeling of great anticipation and a feeling that she would be this transformative figure. We knew that there were constitutional limitations in terms of what she could do, but she had enormous international standing and goodwill on her side. (people speaking quietly) (speaking foreign language) >> NARRATOR: Myanmar's new leader soon faced a crisis-- a Rohingya insurgency in Rakhine State. In October 2016, a previously unknown militant group calling itself the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army-- or ARSA-- claimed responsibility for attacks on three police posts, which killed nine border officers. >> What we know about ARSA is that they are not well-armed, they were mobilizing villagers to attack police stations, checkpoints. I think they felt in part in response to the kinds of restrictions that made their daily lives such a misery, that "We're going to strike back." >> NARRATOR: Aung San Suu Kyi pledged that her government's response to the attacks would be measured. >> Adhering to the principle of justice that everybody must be considered innocent until proven guilty, we have not accused any particular organization or group. >> NARRATOR: But the military began a crackdown across northern Rakhine. Within days, the security services were sweeping through Rohingya villages looking for fighters hiding among the population. >> On November 5, they entered the village of Koh Tan Kauk. (speaking foreign language) >> NARRATOR: One of the officers filmed the operation on his phone as they rounded up dozens of men. In the refugee camps in Bangladesh, we found the man being beaten in the video-- Nur Bashar. >> WILLIAMS: That's you they're hitting? >> BASHAR: >> SOLDIER: >> NARRATOR: Witnesses from Koh Tan Kauk told us that the police arrested four men from the village with no connection to the militants, and they were never seen again. When this video later surfaced on the internet, three officers, including the one who filmed it, were sentenced to two months in jail. But the crackdown didn't end there. Days later, soldiers swept through the village of Dar Gyi Zar. The military says the village was harboring ARSA insurgents. (man speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: Rahman Ullah and Nurul Islam lived in the village. (man speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: A few days later, survivors returned to the village. One of them was filming. (man speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: We played this video to several survivors we found in the refugee camps. They said it shows the aftermath of the army's attack on their village. Their accounts match reports by human rights groups who also investigated the killings. The survivors told us more than 170 people were killed here. Many of the bodies were burned. (man speaking foreign language): (man speaking foreign language): (weeping) >> NARRATOR: The massacre at Dar Gyi Zar took place in November 2016, almost a year before the Rohingya exodus became world news. Activists from northern Rakhine distributed video of residents fleeing multiple villages at this time. (man speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: The activists say this video was filmed in the village of Sin Thay Pyin on November 25. (man speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: Residents are warning each other to flee the army, and then gunfire is heard. (gun fires) By December 2016, an estimated 90,000 Rohingyas were trying to escape the violence. When the refugees started to arrive in neighboring Bangladesh, investigators from the U.N. Human Rights office began collecting their testimony. >> Even by the standards that we are used to seeing, this was absolutely shocking stuff, I mean absolutely shocking. And I remember thinking how children were hunted down, aged five or six, and had their throats slit, and thinking, "Well, this is ISIS-like stuff." >> NARRATOR: He decided to call Aung San Suu Kyi. >> I said, "You have moral standing in the country. "You know, we need to stop this right away, "you have to stop this. "Why don't you let us in? "Why don't you let international journalists in? What are you hiding?" She said something along the lines that, you know, that we needed to share more evidence with her. >> NARRATOR: To get more evidence, the United Nations needed their investigators to visit northern Rakhine. But when the U.N. passed a resolution to send a fact-finding mission to Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi refused to give them access, arguing that outside scrutiny would worsen tensions. >> We do not agree with it, we have dissociated ourselves from the resolution, because we do not think that the resolution is in keeping with what is actually happening on the ground. >> It was disappointing, hugely disappointing. The impression that she was going to be this transformative figure sort of was slowly beginning to erode-- well, not slowly, but quite dramatically. >> NARRATOR: Aung San Suu Kyi's government had also prevented journalists from traveling freely in northern Rakhine-- making it difficult for anyone to verify the allegations against the military. But using satellite images, human rights researchers concluded that dozens of Rohingya villages had been burned and more than 1,500 buildings destroyed. They tried to raise the alarm. >> I remember very clearly meeting with key ambassadors to talk about what is going on there. To say, "Look, you know, "this is not only ethnic cleansing, "but this is also crimes against humanity. There has to be international accountability." But the problem was, it was almost like there was a groupthink that had taken over. And they're all talking to each other, and all persuading each other that Aung San Suu Kyi was a saint, and somehow if she really knew the real situation, she would finally speak up. But, you know, "We can't really pressure her too much, "because if we do so, "we'll destabilize her government, and the Myanmar military will take over." So as far as the Myanmar military is concerned, the lesson is that you can use violence against the Rohingya and get away with it. (horns beeping, cars running) (people shouting) >> NARRATOR: The army's crackdown was popular among Myanmar's powerful Buddhist nationalists, who have long seen the Rohingyas as illegal Muslim immigrants. MAN: As Myanmar has officially announced, that there is no ethnic group named Rohingya. (man speaking foreign language) >> NARRATOR: By June 2017, the authorities were stepping up a program forcing Rohingyas to register with the government. This footage shows villagers being ordered to apply for a new identity document called the NVC. >> MAN: >> NARRATOR: The government said it was to help determine their citizenship. The Rohingyas feared it was a ploy to classify them as illegal Bengali immigrants. In the video, one villager speaks out. (man speaking foreign language): (baby crying) (man speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: Rashan Ali was from the village of Chut Pyin. >> ALI: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: The Myanmar military now began amassing troops in northern Rakhine. In early August 2017, soldiers from two divisions were deployed to the region. One of them was the 33rd Light Infantry-- assault troops notorious for human rights abuses. Rohingya leaders from the village of Chut Pyin say a commander summoned them and delivered an ultimatum. Ahmed Hussain was one of those village leaders. >> AHMED: >> NARRATOR: Rohingyas from many villages told us military commanders were delivering identical threats across northern Rakhine in early August 2017. ♪ ♪ As tensions were rising that summer, the United Nations' special rapporteur on Myanmar was given access to the country. She had already spoken out about the need to protect the Rohingyas from persecution, causing angry protests by Buddhist nationalists. (man speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: In Rohingya villages, she was forced to travel with military and government minders. >> I talked to the villagers, but they were very scared. So many of them are scared to speak with foreigners or outside people because of fear of retaliation, of reprisal. >> NARRATOR: She met with Aung San Suu Kyi and confronted her with accounts of Rohingyas being killed. Until now, Yanghee Lee has not spoken about what happened next. >> She was becoming very, very defensive, and she was saying that these were all made-up stories. "U.N. is so one-sided, they're not helping the situation." I said, you know, that I need more access and, "I would really need your support in getting access." And she looked at me, and she said, "If you continue the narrative of the U.N., you know, you might not get that access." And I stopped, and I thought, I couldn't believe my ears, and I thought to myself, "She must be kidding me." >> NARRATOR: Yanghee Lee was subsequently accused of bias by the Myanmar government and banned from the country. >> It was a political decision she made. She is a politician, and the general sentiment in Myanmar is not favorable to the Rohingyas. (chanting in foreign language) (man speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: On August 25, 2017, Rohingya ARSA militants backed by villagers attacked 30 police posts and an army base in northern Rakhine. (chanting in foreign language) The Myanmar government said that 11 policemen and an immigration officer were killed. In the days that followed, soldiers swept into the villages nearest the attacks. >> Just 15 minutes ago, brutal military came and set fire to the village. >> NARRATOR: It was the beginning of an operation that would eventually drive hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas from their homes. Operatives from Sabo's network were filming. (man speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: One of the first villages to be attacked was Monu Para. (birds chirping) (man speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: Mohammed Ayas says over a hundred people fled to the village leader's compound, seeking safety. As the soldiers entered, he says he hid in the roof. >> AYAS: >> NARRATOR: Villagers say this is one of the soldiers who led the attack that day, Sergeant Ba Kyaw. (man speaking foreign language) We interviewed nine residents who identified him and said they knew him well. He was a member of the army's Unit 564, based here, just south of the village. >> AYAS: >> NARRATOR: Witnesses say Ba Kyaw and other soldiers rounded up dozens of men and took them to the village leader's compound. Aisha Begum was at home with her sons. >> AISHA: >> NARRATOR: The men and boys taken to the compound were forced to lie face down. Mohamadul Hassan was among them. He says he had nothing to do with the militants. >> HASSAN: >> NARRATOR: He says the men were kept tied up in the courtyard for two hours. Then, he says, an officer took a phone call. Other survivors have given journalists and human rights investigators similar accounts of what happened next. >> HASSAN: >> NARRATOR: This video of him was taken a few days after the attack. He says he was shot twice and left for dead. ♪ ♪ Hiding in the roof, Ayas says he watched as some of the men were killed in the courtyard. >> AYAS: >> NARRATOR: In all, eight witnesses told us that Sergeant Ba Kyaw participated in the killings. He's also been named in other news and human rights reports. We weren't able to speak to Ba Kyaw, and the Myanmar military wouldn't respond to the allegations against him. They insist their troops did not harm civilians. But survivors estimate at least 80 people were executed in the courtyard alone. >> AISHA (crying): >> NARRATOR: Aisha says that her husband and three of her children were among them. >> AISHA: >> NARRATOR: The Myanmar military says that it was conducting a "clearance operation" to rid Rakhine of terrorists. But video shot at the scene supports eyewitness claims that many civilians were killed. (man speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: Nurul Hakim went back to Monu Para with a camera once the soldiers had left, risking his life. His footage is dated August 28, one day after the killings. This is the first time he's been interviewed. >> NURUL: >> NARRATOR: Nurul and other witnesses told us more than 100 people were killed throughout the village-- a number that is consistent with subsequent investigations by human rights groups. >> NURUL: >> NARRATOR: Nurul also found body parts. >> NURUL: >> NARRATOR: Elsewhere in the village, he filmed the body of a boy who appears to have been shot in the head. >> NURUL (crying): >> NARRATOR: In another part of Monu Para, a villager filmed a body being dug up. The wounds are still fresh. >> (moaning) >> WILLIAMS: The dead man, do you know who this is? >> AYAS: >> NARRATOR: Ayas says he had seen this man alive in the courtyard before the army's executions began. >> WILLIAMS: How old was he? >> AYAS: >> NARRATOR: By now, the Myanmar military's campaign had spread across the whole of northern Rakhine. Over the next few days, dozens of Rohingya villages were attacked and burned to the ground. On August 27, members of the 33rd Light Infantry Division moved into the village of Chut Pyin. >> REPORTER: >> NARRATOR: A Myanmar TV network broadcast this report that same day. >> REPORTER: >> NARRATOR: But the footage filmed by Rohingya activists tells a different story. Sabo was filming in the nearby village of Ah Tet Nan Ya as survivors from Chut Pyin streamed in. >> SABO: >> MAN: >> SABO: >> MAN: >> NARRATOR: He filmed dozens of wounded men, women, and children, many of them shot in the back as they fled. We tracked down some of the survivors seen in Sabo's footage, who all independently recounted how the military attacked civilians. >> JAHIN HUSSEIN: >> NARRATOR: The video shows a villager named Jahin Hussein and his niece, Jamila Khatun. She's 16 years old and has been shot in the back. >> JAHIN HUSSEIN: >> NARRATOR: We found them in the refugee camps in Bangladesh. >> JAHIN HUSSEIN: >> JAMILA KHATUN: >> WOMAN (crying): >> NARRATOR: Nur Begum says that when the women tried to fight back, a soldier shot one of them dead. >> NUR: (crying) >> NARRATOR: Multiple survivors from Chut Pyin told us the soldiers engaged in mass rape in the village. Among the survivors filmed by Sabo was village leader and medic Rashan Ali. >> ALI: >> NARRATOR: He says he did what he could to treat the victims. >> ALI: >> NARRATOR: He said many of the rape victims were children. >> ALI: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: As the soldiers swept through Chut Pyin, nine-year-old Arefa Khatum was hiding at school. >> AREFA: >> NARRATOR: When the soldiers reached the school, Arefa says she was shot through the leg. The bullet shattered her bones. >> AREFA: >> NARRATOR: What happened next is horrific. Arefa's mother, Rashida Khatum, says she and her son were rounded up by soldiers with a large group of women and children. >> RASHIDA KHATUM: >> NARRATOR: Rashida says the soldiers dragged the children and babies to nearby burning houses. (fire crackling) She says they then threw them into the flames alive. >> RASHIDA KHATUM: >> NARRATOR: Rashida says she saved her own son by hiding him under her shawl. 60-year-old Umul Kulsum says her grandson and her granddaughter were ripped from her arms. >> KULSUM: >> NARRATOR: Ahmed Hussain, one of the village leaders, is compiling a record of everything that happened in Chut Pyin. >> AHMED: >> NARRATOR: He showed us where the women were held with their children. >> AHMED: (baby crying) >> NARRATOR: Ahmed is collecting the names of all the missing. So far he's identified 358 people that he believes were killed in the attack. We asked him how many of the dead were children. >> AHMED: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: By early September 2017, an exodus was underway. In a single month, around half a million refugees crossed the border into Bangladesh. It was only now that the Rohingya crisis became world news. Under international pressure, the Myanmar military would eventually conduct an internal investigation. It concluded there was no rape, no burning, and no killing of civilians by its soldiers. They maintain that the campaign was a counter-insurgency "clearance operation" against "Bengali terrorists." >> Rubbish. I mean, this is not counter-insurgency. Counter-insurgency means you go after the specific units that are involved, but rounding up, you know, civilians, burning their houses, slicing the throats of children, you know, raping pregnant women and then disemboweling them-- I mean, how on Earth is that counter-insurgency? These were not sporadic acts. These were well-organized, well thought through. Clearly, it didn't seem to be an operation that was put together at the last moment. There is some design to this. This was a textbook case of ethnic cleansing. >> NARRATOR: As more survivors were reaching Bangladesh, the accounts of atrocities mounted. The worst-known massacre of all happened in the village of Tula Toli. When soldiers attacked from the north, hundreds of Rohingyas fled eastward but were trapped by a bend in the river. (man speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: Survivors we interviewed told us this video was filmed downstream from Tula Toli. It shows the bodies of children and babies being recovered from the river. (man speaking foreign language): (man crying) >> NARRATOR: The survivors from Tula Toli recognized some of the bodies in the video. >> MUMTAZ: >> NARRATOR: Mumtaz Begum says soldiers took her to a house with her only surviving daughter, Razeya. >> MUMTAZ: >> NARRATOR: She says when the soldiers had finished, they locked the women inside the house. >> RAZEYA: >> MUMTAZ: ♪ ♪ (man speaking foreign language): (man calling) >> NARRATOR: Survivors from Tula Toli streamed across the river, trying to escape. Witnesses told us that over a thousand people were killed in the village, a number consistent with reports from other journalists and human rights groups. (crying) (speaking foreign language): >> NARRATOR: Mumtaz says she managed to escape the burning house with her daughter. As she fled, she found her wounded son lying nearby. >> MUMTAZ: (weeping) >> The security forces have been instructed to exercise all due restraint and to take full measures to avoid collateral damage and the harming of innocent civilians. >> NARRATOR: Three weeks after the campaign began, Aung San Suu Kyi defended the military and claimed that operations in northern Rakhine had finished. >> There have been no conflicts since the fifth of September, and no clearance operations. >> NARRATOR: But even as she spoke, the destruction continued. Satellite imagery shows that in the weeks after September 5, numerous Rohingya villages were burned to the ground. ♪ ♪ We tried to get access to northern Rakhine, but the Myanmar military refused our request. >> WILLIAMS: For weeks we've been trying to talk to somebody from the government or the army about what they think is happening in Rakhine State. We've written to the home minister; the minister for border affairs; the three senior generals who have been appointed to liaise with the media; the state counselor, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and even the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, General Min Aung Hlaing himself. None of the them will see us. Only one junior minister will grant us an interview. >> NARRATOR: Win Myat Aye is the minister for social welfare, relief, and resettlement. The interview was monitored by other officials. >> WILLIAMS: Why did the Rohingyas leave Myanmar? Why did they-- why did so many Rohingya people leave? They say there was violent attacks by the military. >> No, it's not true, the 100%. And I mean that, 100%. Because of the conflict between the two communities and because of the terrorist attack, there is the cleansing operation. They fear for that. Cleansing operation for the terrorists. >> WILLIAMS: They say that the army went into hundreds of villages shooting men, women, and children, and raping women, and burning the houses-- why do you think the army used such force in this way? >> So I, I don't think so. They are-- we are-- as you know, I already have said about you, I don't know-- I know only about my duty and my responsibility. It's beyond my capacity. >> NARRATOR: He repeatedly said he was not familiar with the military operation. But state media shows the minister in Rakhine State with the army on August 27, at the height of the army's campaign. Myanmar's commander-in-chief is Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. He has stated publicly that the country "has no Rohingya race" and referred to the campaign in northern Rakhine as "unfinished business" against Bengali immigrants. >> MIN AUNG HLAING: >> He said it was unfinished business, they were carrying out an unfinished business. It indicates the military had a plan to wipe out this whole population. >> WILLIAMS: But in human rights language, what actually is it? >> Hallmarks of genocide. Hallmarks of genocide. >> You don't embark on something like this, knowing that on this scale there is going to be an international response, without the orders coming from the top of the military chain of command. So I suspect that Min Aung Hlaing was very much in the know about this. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if a court subsequently were to make a determination that acts of genocide have been perpetrated-- it wouldn't surprise me in the least. >> NARRATOR: The U.S. State Department has launched an investigation into alleged atrocities against the Rohingyas, collecting evidence that it says could one day be used to prosecute the military for crimes against humanity. But despite the death toll and humanitarian crisis, there have been no major efforts by the U.S. or other countries to sanction Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi has continued to defend her country from international criticism. In January, she met with Bill Richardson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The two were old friends. >> I said, "Look, friends are real friends "if they give frank advice. "Let the U.N. in. "Don't condemn human rights groups that don't agree with you." And I said, "Look, my own government, the secretary of state, says it's ethnic cleansing" And she exploded. She said, "Bill, you've got an agenda. There's terrorism with some of the Rohingyas." That's when we had a huge altercation. I thought if we were closer, she would hit me. I could see the anger in her face. It was obvious she saw the Rohingyas as not part of Myanmar. That's when I realized she had changed. ♪ ♪ She had gone from a human rights heroine, a beacon of democracy, to a politician wanting to cater to the military. Wanting the military to support her. She wants to get re-elected. She likes this seat of power. That's not the Aung San Suu Kyi I remember. She is walling herself off from reality. >> NARRATOR: Late last month, Aung San Suu Kyi invited a U.N. delegation to Rakhine State. Her government is now vowing to help refugees return to Myanmar. But in the camps, the Rohingyas are wary. 14-year-old Abdulsalam Ullah is from the village of Chut Pyin. He is haunted by what he saw there. >> ABDULSALAM ULLAH: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Go to pbs.org/frontline to learn more about the U.N.'s response to the crisis. >> And she looked at me, and she said, "If you continue the narrative of the U.N., you might not get that access." >> Read a Q&A with correspondent Evan Williams about the making of this film. >> WILLIAMS: It's really hard to convey the sheer scale of this crisis. >> Connect to the "Frontline" community on Facebook and Twitter. Then sign up for our newsletter at pbs.org/frontline. >> He gripped my arm... >> And he started to massage my shoulders... >> ...in a forceful way. >> Stories with uncanny similarities. >> He came back... >> In a robe... >> Just, like, an open robe... >> If you were in his movie, you had a shot at an Academy Award. >> He used these non-disclosure agreements... >> It was a show of power. >> I think a lot of people turned a blind eye. >> And control. >> I think his career is over, but you know, who knows? Anything can happen. ♪ ♪ >> For more on this and other "Frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline. ♪ ♪ "Frontline's" "Myanmar's Killing Fields" is available on DVD. To order, visit shop.PBS.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS. "Frontline" is also available for download on iTunes. ♪ ♪