Authorities said at least 78 people were killed and thousands of homes were burned down or destroyed.
The worst of the violence subsided late last month, but communal violence has ground on. Now, Amnesty said, it is being directed mostly at the Rohingya population.
Attacks over the last six weeks have been "primarily one-sided, with Muslims generally and Rohingyas specifically the targets and victims," Benjamin Zawacki, a Bangkok-based researcher for Amnesty, told The Associated Press. "Some of this is by the security forces' own hands, some by Rakhine Buddhists with the security forces turning a blind eye in some cases."
The group also said security forces, including the police and the army, had conducted massive sweeps and detained hundreds of Rohingyas who are being held "incommunicado."
"While the restoration of order, security, and the protection of human rights is necessary, most arrests appear to have been arbitrary and discriminatory, violating the rights to liberty and to freedom from discrimination on grounds of religion," Amnesty said in a statement.
Win Myaing, the government spokesman, said security forces had arrested at least 100 Muslims in the northern Rakhine state town of Maungdaw. Muslims account for more than 95 percent of the population in the town, he said, and it is natural they would comprise most of the arrests there.
Iran urged the United Nations to take action to protect the Rohingyas.
"We believe that ethnic and religious cleansing against Muslims under whatever pretext is unjustifiable and inexcusable under international law, and the United Nations must take urgent measures" to protect the Rohingyas by calling on Myanmar's government to end its "crackdown," Iran's UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee said in a letter Friday to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The violence in Rakhine constituted some of the country's deadliest sectarian bloodshed in years and raised international concerns about the Rohingyas' fate inside Myanmar.
Many people in Myanmar don't recognize Rohingya as legitimate settlers, though those of Bengali heritage who came in the 19th century, when Myanmar was under British rule and called Burma, are regarded as full citizens. Those who entered after Myanmar became independent in 1948 are considered illegal immigrants.
Bangladesh, for its part, also denies the Rohingya citizenship, arguing that they have been living in Myanmar for centuries and should be recognized as citizens there instead.
The UN estimates that 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar today. Thousands attempt to flee every year to Bangladesh, Malaysia and elsewhere in the region to escape a life of abuse that rights groups say includes forced labor, violence against women and restrictions on movement, marriage and reproduction.
Amnesty called on Myanmar to accept the Rohingya as citizens.
"Under international human rights law and standards, no one may be left or rendered stateless," Zawacki said. "For too long Myanmar's human rights record has been marred by the continued denial of citizenship for Rohingyas and a host of discriminatory practices against them."
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