By Liam Cochrane
(ABC News)
Her demeanour was
somewhere between blank and terrified.
But she wanted to
tell us something.
"Then I was
told to go back. But I didn't. I was sitting there. Then they started beating
me and they took off my clothes.
"They beat me
too much and did what they wanted. The military did this."
She is 18 years old.
The Myanmar
Government organised a trip for foreign journalists to go to northern Rakhine
State, in Myanmar's west.
The region has been
off limits ever since militants attacked several police posts in October,
killing nine officers and stealing dozens of weapons.
That sparked
reprisals from security forces against Rohingya Muslims that the United Nations
called "possible ethnic cleansing".
Some of the 70,000
who fled to neighbouring Bangladesh told stories of atrocities at the hands of
the army.
The township of
Maundaw was allegedly the scene of some of the worst violence last year, at the
hands of soldiers and police.
Where possible,
reporters insisted our heavily-armed police escort stayed behind while we
conducted interviews.
Each time, fresh
allegations emerged.
"They came to
this village and burned my father [alive] inside a house and jailed my mother
[when she filed a complaint]," said a woman, who the ABC has chosen not to
name, in case of retribution.
Speaking out is
risky.
Two previous
Government-run trips for local journalists have toured northern Rakhine State.
After each trip,
someone who talked to the press was killed by unknown assailants.
Myanmar is a majority
Buddhist country with more than 130 recognised ethnic groups.
But the one million
Muslim Rohingyas are not among them.
Most in Myanmar
consider Rohingyas to be illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh,
calling them "Bengalis" or worse, "kalas".
Many have lived in
Myanmar for generations, but they exist under a kind of apartheid — forbidden
to leave their village without permission, get a formal job or attend
university.
Against this
backdrop, a new insurgency formed calling itself Harakah al-Yaqin … or Faith
Movement.
It is thought to be
led and funded from Saudi Arabia.
The army and the
Border Guard Police deny almost all the allegations of human rights abuses.
Police Brigadier
General Thura San Lwin said Rohingyas were killing each other and had burned
down their own homes.
The Chief Minister
of Rakhine State, U Nyi Bu, rejects the allegation from Malaysian's Prime
Minister that Myanmar is conducting genocide.
"This isn't
genocide, what we did just cause minor injuries," he said. "If people
think it's a big deal, they're wrong."
The conflict between
Buddhists and Rohingyas dates back decades, with sporadic flaring of communal
violence.
In 2012, clashes
caused thousands of Rohingyas to flee the state capital Sittwe and shelter in
what they thought would be temporary camps.
Five years on, they
still depend on food aid but malnutrition appears common, compounded by a lack
of medical services.
There are no easy
answers, with both sides entrenched in mistrust and prejudice.
After historic
elections in 2015, Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is the de facto leader
of the country, but she has no control over the security forces, which continue
to act as a law unto themselves.
She has been
criticised for not speaking for the rights of the Rohinghya, but doing so risks
alienating her main constituency, the myriad of ethnic groups who are united in
little else but their dislike of the "Bengalis".
Aung San Suu Kyi has
tried to carve out space for dialogue, requesting that emotive terms like
Bangali and Rohingyas be avoided, and "Muslim" be used instead.
A special commission
headed by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has made interim
recommendations, including a call for unimpeded access for aid workers and
media.
A UN resolution to
launch a fact finding mission to Rakhine State has been blocked by the Myanmar
Government, saying it would be provocative.
With no end in
sight, the secret killings and blanket denials continue, bringing with it the
risk of a much more potent insurgency.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-19/myanmar-rohingya-muslims-share-stories-violence-rakhine-state/8721978