By REUTERS
01 March 2017
NAYPYIDAW — The Tatmadaw, Burma’s military, defended its
crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in Arakan State as a lawful
counterinsurgency operation at a rare news conference on Tuesday, adding that
it was necessary to defend the country.
It was the first time the top generals directly addressed
the mounting accusations of human rights abuses, which, according to UN
experts, may amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
“I want to say that I am very sad because of these kind
of reckless accusations and neglect of the good things that the government and
the military have done for them,” said Gen Mya Tun Oo, chief of the general
staff, referring to the reports in the media quoting Rohingya residents
describing the alleged abuses such as burning of houses in the area.
He presented a series of slides with selected media
reports claiming the military had “investigated” them and that the villagers
told military investigators they did not know about any abuses.
The military launched the operation after nine policemen
were killed in attacks on security posts near the Bangladesh border on Oct. 9.
More than 70,000 Rohingya have since fled from Burma to Bangladesh, according
to UN estimates.
At the conference, the military supported its claims by
quoting international observers who have briefly visited some villages in the
area as saying that they did not find any evidence of abuses.
But the visitors, such as the UN independent human rights
expert Yanghee Lee and western diplomats based in Rangoon, have said the point
of their visits has never been to conclusively investigate the media reports.
Gen Mya Tun Oo said the military was continuing its probe.
“If we find that these cases are really happening as per
the accusations in the media, we will take very serious action according to the
military rules and current laws,” he said.
But the results of the investigation appeared to have
been preempted by the head of the military, Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.
A few hours before the conference, he posted on his
Facebook page an exchange with visitors in which he said the “accusations are
much wrong in comparison with the ground situation” in the troubled Arakan
State.
“The security troops are discharging their duty in line
with the law. Correct information on the incidents is released on time.”