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In refugee camps in
Bangladesh, survivors of a wave of
violence that has swept Myanmar in recent
weeks say
government forces have targeted minority Rohingya
villages, burning
many to the ground, killing the innocent
and raping women. Pic: AP
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BURMESE security forces have committed serious human
rights violations against Rohingya men, women, and children, according to a
report by the United Nations.
The report was based on interviews with 204 victims
located across the border, in Bangladesh. It described mass gang-rape and
killings witnessed by majority of the victims, with nearly half of them
reporting family members who were either killed or missing. Over half of the
101 women interviewed experienced rape and other forms of sexual violence.
All the people interviewed reportedly fled to Burma after
October 9, when two policemen were killed in an attack on three border posts
stations along the border between Burma and Bangladesh. The attack resulted in
intense military operations and a lockdown in north Maungdaw.
SEE ALSO: Burma: 2 police killed
in attacks along Bangladesh border in conflicted Rakhine state: https://asiancorrespondent.com/2016/10/burma-police-killed-attacks-bangladesh-border/
High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein in a statement
recounted a particularly harrowing case in which a baby “crying out for his
mother’s milk” was stabbed and the child’s mother witnessing this “while she is
being gang-raped by the very security forces who should be protecting her”.
“What kind of ‘clearance operation’ is this? What
national security goals could possibly be served by this?” he said. “I call on
the international community, with all its strength, to join me in urging the
leadership in Myanmar to bring such military operations to an end. The gravity
and scale of these allegations begs the robust reaction of the international
community.”
Accusations of rape, murder, arson, and detaining
civilians have been leveled against the Burmese military for some time now.
Last week, the BBC reported that the commission formed by
the government to investigate the rapes had been
altering witness accounts, claiming that Burma’s state broadcaster had
used incorrect subtitles during a witness interview.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s government has vehemently denied these
accusations.