Myanmar army killed and raped in Rohingya ethnic cleansing - U.N

[snoop1130]

Myanmar army killed and raped in Rohingya ethnic cleansing - U.N

By Stephanie Nebehay

 

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein addresses the Human Rights Council 26th Special Session on the human rights situation in South Sudan, Geneva, Switzerland, December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy

 

GENEVA (Reuters) - Myanmar's security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that probably amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly "ethnic cleansing", the U.N. human rights office said on Friday.

 

Witnesses had testified to "the killing of babies, toddlers, children, women and elderly; opening fire at people fleeing; burning of entire villages; massive detention; massive and systematic rape and sexual violence; deliberate destruction of food and sources of food", the report said.

 

One woman told U.N. investigators how her eight-month baby boy had had his throat slit. Another was raped by soldiers and saw her five-year-old daughter killed as she tried to stop them.

 

“The devastating cruelty to which these Rohingya children have been subjected is unbearable," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said in a statement.

 

Around 66,000 people have fled from the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine State to Bangladesh since Myanmar's military launched a security operation in response to attacks on police border posts on Oct. 9, the U.N. report said. The U.N. humanitarian office has recently put the figure at 69,000.

 

"The 'area clearance operations' have likely resulted in hundreds of deaths," some of them through helicopters shooting at villages and dropping grenades on them, the U.N. report said.

 

Four U.N. investigators gathered testimony last month from 220 Rohingya victims and witnesses who fled the "lockdown area" in Maungdaw in Rakhine for the Cox's Bazar district in Bangladesh.

 

Nearly half reported a family member had been killed or disappeared while 101 women reported having been raped or subjected to sexual violence, it said.

 

The investigators took evidence including photographs of bullet and knife wounds, burns, and injuries resulting from beatings with rifle butts or bamboo sticks.

 

The plight of the stateless Rohingya, of whom some 1.1 million live in apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine, has long been a source of friction between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

 

GOVERNMENT REVIEWING REPORT

 

Myanmar, a mostly Buddhist country where Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is de facto leader, has denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses in northern Rakhine and says a lawful counterinsurgency campaign is under way.

 

In Yangon, the spokesman for President Htin Kyaw’s office, said the government had not yet seen the report.

 

"We will review the report from the U.N. and we will respond, either in an official statement or in an individual response (to questions)," Zaw Htay said.

 

While denying observers and independent journalists access to the conflict area, officials have accused Rohingya residents and refugees of fabricating stories of killings, beatings, mass rape and arson in collaboration with insurgents who they say are Rohingya terrorists with links to Islamists overseas.

 

Zeid called for a robust reaction from the international community and said Myanmar must accept responsibility for committing grave human rights violations against its own people.

 

The report said the attacks on the Rohingya "seem to have been widespread as well as systematic, indicating the very likely commission of crimes against humanity".

 

Bangladesh is determined to relocate Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar to an island in the Bay of Bengal, a Bangladeshi minister said on Wednesday. Critics say the island is uninhabitable. The minister said the move was temporary and Myanmar would ultimately have to take the Rohingya back.

 

(Additional reporting by Wa Lone in Yangon; Editing by Tom Miles and Kevin Liffey)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-2-3

[Emster23]

I do hope Trump doesn't somehow hear of this. I can imagine a tweet of praise for "tough, firm action against Muslim extremists"

[RuamRudy]

Truly horrific - what is going on with Aung San Suu Kyi? She was supposed to be the great unifier but she is staying very quiet on this.

[homosapien]

su kyi is part of the great burmese drama 

[Baerboxer]

1 hour ago, RuamRudy said:

Truly horrific - what is going on with Aung San Suu Kyi? She was supposed to be the great unifier but she is staying very quiet on this.

 

She seems very selective - and selects to ignore this particular issue.

 

Having said that, are there independent witnesses? Independent evidence? 

 

Whilst not wanting to suggest bad things haven't happened, believing everything that's said, without corroborating evidence, is also wrong. There is always the tendencies to exaggerate and color accounts on both sides, deny and affirm the bits to suit an agenda.

 

 

 

[RuamRudy]

1 minute ago, Baerboxer said:

 

She seems very selective - and selects to ignore this particular issue.

 

Having said that, are there independent witnesses? Independent evidence? 

 

Whilst not wanting to suggest bad things haven't happened, believing everything that's said, without corroborating evidence, is also wrong. There is always the tendencies to exaggerate and color accounts on both sides, deny and affirm the bits to suit an agenda.

 

 

 

Surely the UN can  be considered impartial?  As I understand it, foreigners are banned from travelling to the areas where these people reside. That suggests to me that the government has a desire to suppress information from the area.

[homosapien]

The Rohinjas or their lands are not lucrative enough for world communities interests,, No profit in helping them ,, They have nothing to offer ...All of us can only offer comments and watch them being victimised... and hope it gets over quick

Until one day it happens to us ...