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| Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a speech during Union Day celebrations in Panglong, Myanmar, Feb. 12, 2017. Suu Kyi has called on all armed ethnic groups to sign a nationwide ceasefire. |
YANGON, MYANMAR —
Two members of Myanmar’s security forces were injured in
a clash with militants on the troubled Rakhine State border with Bangladesh,
Myanmar state counselor’s office said, casting doubt on the government’s claim
that the region had stabilized.
The government last week said the situation in northern
Rakhine had stabilized and that it had ended a four-month security crackdown on
Rohingya Muslims.
The security operation had been under way since nine
policemen were killed in attacks on security posts near the Bangladesh border
October 9. Almost 69,000 Rohingyas have since fled to Bangladesh, according to
U.N. estimates.
The United Nations has said the security crackdown may
amount to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.
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| Rakhine state, Myanmar |
Border clash
Two soldiers were wounded in a five-minute clash with an
armed group on the border with Bangladesh Friday afternoon, the State Counselor’s
said in a statement late Saturday.
“The forces providing security forces to workers
preparing border fence between the Mile Post 56 and 57 in Buthidaung township
were attacked by about 30 unidentified armed men in black uniforms positioned
on hills in Bangladeshi side,” the statement said, adding the armed men
withdrew after security forces returned fire.
The security forces were still gathering information to
identify how many members from the armed group were injured or killed during
the clash, the office said in the short statement.
Bangladesh border guards could not immediately be
contacted. Myanmar State Counselor’s Office and military did not immediately
respond to requests for comments.
October attacks
Myanmar’s government blamed Rohingyas supported by
foreign militants for the October 9 attacks on police, but has issued scant
information about the assailants it called “terrorists.”
A group of Rohingya Muslims involved in the October
attacks is headed by people with links to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the
International Crisis Group said in a report last year.
The government, led Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has
denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses in Rakhine, including mass
killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims, and said the operation was a
lawful counterinsurgency campaign.
The violence has renewed international criticism that the
Myanmar leader has done too little to help members of the Muslim minority, many
of whom live in apartheid-like conditions in northwestern Myanmar.
Rohingya Muslims have faced discrimination in Myanmar for
generations. They are regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and many
entitled only to limited rights.