By AFP
A
government-appointed commission on Sunday cleared Myanmar security forces of
systematic rape, murder and arson against Rohingya Muslims, dismissing UN
allegations of widespread abuses during a recent crackdown.
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The commission
examined the deadly violence which began in northwestern Rakhine State in
October last year after attacks by Rohingya militants on police posts near the
Bangladesh border.
Read also
here: Myanmar says no crimes against humanity in Rakhine state violence: https://lnkd.in/gzt5ByW
The government is
refusing to allow a UN fact-finding team to conduct its own probe into whether
the security response amounted to "ethnic cleansing" of the stateless
Rohingya minority.
Giving their
conclusions on Sunday, a state-backed commission said it found no evidence that
Myanmar security forces carried out a systematic campaign of rape, murder or
arson.
Instead any
"excessive actions" were likely committed by low-rank
"individual members of the security forces".
"Some incidents
(of abuse) appeared to be fabricated... others had little evidence,"
according to a press release by the commission.
It also took aim at
a detailed report by the UN's Human Rights Office released in February this
year.
That report said it
was "very likely" those crimes against humanity had been committed
during the crackdown.
Based on interviews
with 204 witnesses who fled to Bangladesh, the UN alleged Myanmar security
forces gang-raped Rohingya women, butchered children and tortured men.
But "no such
cases were uncovered" by the government commission, which said the UN
findings lacked balance and failed to recognise the gravity of the attacks by
Rohingya militants.
Myanmar's de facto
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is a Nobel peace prize winner, is blocking a visit
by a UN team.
She says the
government commission is an adequate response to the violence, which left
scores dead and displaced tens of thousands of Rohingya to Bangladesh.
The Rohingya are
reviled in Myanmar and widely seen as illegal immigrants.
Stateless, poor and
subject to tight controls on movement, education and work, roughly one million
of the Muslim group are hemmed into the impoverished border zone -- which
remains locked down and under curfew.
The commission
conceded that foreign media and NGOs should have been granted access to the
zone during the conflict to dispel "misconceptions."
Read also
here: Myanmar rejects allegations of human rights abuses against Rohingya https://reut.rs/2wjkFo9
It also called for
rights training for low-level security officers, urged local officials to
tackle corruption and called for swift and fair trials of suspected militants.
Read
here: The Myanmar government's inquiry into violence against Muslim Rohingya
has concluded that no such crimes happened. https://lnkd.in/gPHCGpz
Rakhine State
remains violent and on edge.
The government says
foreign-backed Rohingya militants are still active in the conflict area,
accusing them of killing perceived state collaborators and running
"terror" training camps.
Last week seven
Buddhists were found dead in the conflict area.
Rohingya villages
also continue to be raided.
On Friday up to 50
"warning shots" were fired at a Rohingya village during a raid.
Unverifiable images
on social media showed several people wounded by bullets allegedly fired in the
episode.