Robert Birsel
YANGON (Reuters) - Rohingya Muslims are not native to
Myanmar, the army chief told the U.S. ambassador in a meeting in which he
apparently did not address accusations of abuses by his men and said media was
complicit in exaggerating the number of refugees fleeing.
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| File Photo: Myanmar Army Chief S.Gen Min Aung Hlaing The only super power man of Myanmar who repeatedly denying Rohingyas |
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing gave his most extensive
account of the Rohingya refugee crisis aimed at an international audience in
the meeting with Ambassador Scot Marciel, according to a report posted on his
Facebook page.
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| Myanmar' Army Chief with US Ambassador |
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| Screen shot of the news in Burmese |
Min Aung Hlaing, referring to Rohingya by the term
“Bengali”, which they regard as derogatory, said British colonialists were
responsible for the problem.
“The Bengalis were not taken into the country by Myanmar,
but by the colonialists,” he told Marciel, according to the account of the
meeting posted on Thursday.
“They are not the natives, and the records prove that
they were not even called Rohingya but just Bengalis during the colonial
period.”
The U.N. human rights office said on Wednesday Myanmar
security forces had brutally driven out half a million Rohingya from northern
Rakhine state to Bangladesh, torching their homes, crops and villages to
prevent them from returning.
Coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks on some 30
security posts on Aug. 25 sparked a ferocious military response.
The U.N. rights office said in its report, based on 65
interviews with Rohingya who had arrived in Bangladesh, that abuses had begun
before the Aug. 25 attacks and included killings, torture and rape of children.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley last
month denounced what she called a “brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the
country of an ethnic minority” and called on countries to suspend providing
weapons to Myanmar until its military puts sufficient accountability measures
in place.
The European Union and the United States are considering
targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s military leaders, officials familiar with
the discussions said this week.
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| Rohingyas are fleeing for ongoing state run genocide |
None of U @OfficialSuuKyi @SGMinAungHlaing wants to know
abt his cry bt some others @secgen @POTUS @unhrcpr @RT_Erdogan may try to read
him: https://t.co/qFB4kfnNv3
Suu Kyi is due make a speech on television later on Thursday.
She was swept into office last year after winning an
election, but the military holds immense power, including exclusive say over
security.
‘FEEL INSECURE’
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra‘ad
al-Hussein has described the government operations as “a textbook example of
ethnic cleansing” and said the action appeared to be “a cynical ploy to
forcibly transfer large numbers of people without possibility of return”.
Min Aung Hlaing did not refer to such accusations,
according to the published account, but said the insurgents had killed 90
Hindus and 30 Rohingya linked to the government.
Insurgents’ opposition to a citizenship verification
campaign, which used the term Bengali, was behind the attacks, he said.
“Local Bengalis were involved in the attacks under the
leadership of ARSA. That is why they might have fled as they feel insecure,” he
said, referring to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army insurgents.
“The native place of Bengalis is really Bengal,” he said.
“They might have fled ... assuming that they would be safer there.”
He said it was an exaggeration to say the number fleeing
to Bangladesh was “very large” and there had been “instigation and propaganda
by using the media from behind the scene”.
He did not elaborate, or say how many people he thought
had fled, but said the “real situation” had to be relayed to the international
community.
U.N. political affairs Chief Jeffrey Feltman is due to
visit Myanmar on Friday.
Min Aung Hlaing repeated a promise from Suu Kyi that
refugees would be accepted back under an agreement with Bangladesh in the early
1990s, adding that details were being worked out.
Many refugees doubt their chances of going home fearing
they will not be able to prove their right to return.
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