Myanmar’s Investigation Commission Visits Northern Maungdaw
Maungdaw — The 13-member
Investigation Commission led by Myanmar’s Vice President 1 Gen. Myint Swe
visited the northern Maungdaw region on Sunday (Dec 11), amidst the reports of
the mass atrocities by the state’s military on the minority Rohingya.
The investigation commission
was formed by the President U Htin Kyaw on December 1 in the wake of the
international outcry against the military’s operation of ethnic cleansing of
the Rohingya in Maungdaw, Arakan State, Myanmar.
The investigation commission
arrived at the village of Kyein Chaung (Boli Bazaar) by two helicopters at
around 10 am on Sunday and quickly moved towards the village of NgaKura
(Nagpura) to meet the local villagers.
Mr. Aye Myint, a human rights
observer based in northern Maungdaw, said “the Rohingya communities do not
trust the investigation commission because it was formed with the same bunch of
people that are more or less complicit in the crimes against the community in
the region. Hence, it is naturally bound to be biased and without transparency.
“However, the locals met the
commission with the belief that something is better than nothing. The Rohingya
men and women explained the commission members about the military’s atrocities
such as setting their homes on fire, plunders of their parties, the tortures,
arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings of the civilians, and gang-rapes
against the women/girls.”
Also read: Rohingya Rejects
Burmese Gov’t’s Prejudicial Inquiry Commission
Although the locals in the
villages of ‘Ngakura and Pyaung Paik’ managed to meet the commission members,
the villagers of ‘Oo Shye Kya’ had been driven out of the village by the
Burmese (Myanmar military) prior to the arrival of the investigation commission.
Some villagers of ‘Oo Shye Kya’ waiting to meet the commission were tortured
during the raid conducted by the military.
Similar reports of the military
raids have been conducted at the village of ‘Kyet Yoe Pyin’ at around 8:00 am
on Sunday.
“The military not only drove us
out of the village but also plundered our properties, motorcycles, solar
panels, batteries and blankets in our absence in the village” said a local of
Kyet Yoe Pyin on telephone.
Some of the victims of the
robberies are identified to be:
Mohammed Kasim (s/o) Kabir
Ahmed, 25 (his motorcycle was seized.)
Kalim (s/o) Fazal Ahmed, 27
(his motorcycle was seized.)
Abu Tayyib (s/o) Sharif
Hussein, 18 (his solar panel and battery were robbed.)