By RFA
Myanmar’s government on Friday shrugged off a report
detailing the killing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state that prompted calls
from the U.S. State Department for an independent investigation into the
claims, saying the foreign media is “hurting our work” restoring stability to
the region.
Late on Thursday, Reuters news agency published a special
report on the events that led to the killing of 10 Rohingya men, including two
teenagers, from Rakhine’s Inn Din village who it said were buried in a mass
grave after being hacked to death or shot by Buddhist neighbors and soldiers.
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U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told
Reuters that “as with other, previous reports of mass graves, this report
highlights the ongoing and urgent need for Burmese authorities to cooperate
with an independent, credible investigation into allegations of atrocities in
northern Rakhine.”
“Such an investigation would help provide a more
comprehensive picture of what happened, clarify the identities of the victims,
identify those responsible for human rights abuses and violations, and advance
efforts for justice and accountability,” she said.
When asked about the report—which cited interviews with
Buddhists who confessed to burning Rohingya homes, burying bodies and killing
Muslims amid violence sparked by attacks on security posts by Rohingya
insurgents last August—Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Win
Myat Aye told RFA’s Myanmar Service that it undermined government efforts to
bring peace to Rakhine state.
“It is hurting our work,” the minister said, questioning
the validity of the claims in the report, which included photographs of bound
victims kneeling before the killing, and of their bodies lying in a trench
afterwards.
“Some members of the international media write what they
think it is the truth, and I don’t want to blame them, as it is their job. We
are doing our job as well.”
Meanwhile, Win Myat Aye said, the government remains
focused on repatriating some 700,000 refugees who have been forced across the
border to neighboring Bangladesh since Myanmar’s military began a crackdown in
Rakhine state following the August attacks carried out by Muslim militant group
the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).
“We are working on receiving and resettling them
according to the law,” he said, adding that the government is responsible for
the refugees “that can prove they were residents of Rakhine state.”
The United Nations and rights groups have warned against
a quick return of the Rohingya, saying that the minority group will continue to
face repression and discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are
considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and are denied citizenship and
access to basic services.
The Reuters report marks the first time soldiers and
paramilitary police have been named in eyewitness accounts from security
personnel in atrocities including killings, torture, rape, property theft, and
arson that have been widely documented by both news agencies and human rights
organizations, and which the United Nations has said might amount to genocide.
Prior to the report’s publication, Myanmar government
spokesman Zaw Htay told Reuters “we are not denying the allegations about
violations of human rights and we are not giving blanket denials,” adding that
if “strong and reliable primary evidence” indicated abuses had taken place,
authorities would investigate the claims.
There was no immediate comment from the government
following the publication of the report.
Press freedom
Myanmar’s government has consistently denied allegations
of atrocities and, citing the foreign media’s “one-sided” reporting, has banned
independent news outlets from visiting northern Rakhine state where the
violence occurred.
In addition to the ban, Myanmar authorities have been
arresting or filing lawsuits against those who work for foreign media outlets
to further clamp down on reports about the crackdown and its aftermath.
Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are on trial
for “obtaining state secrets” while reporting on the Inn Din incident and face
up to 14 years in prison. The pair, whose bylines were on Thursday’s special
report, were arrested on Dec. 12 just after they had dinner with two police
officers who gave them documents about the crackdown.
Rights groups and the Myanmar media have accused the
police of entrapment and have criticized Myanmar’s civilian government under de
facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi for backpedaling on press freedom.
The Rakhine state government this week said it would sue
the Associated Press for publishing a report confirming the existence of at
least five previously unreported mass graves containing the remains of Rohingya
in a village in Buthidaung township.
Both the national and state governments have rejected the
report as “false” and claimed that the bodies of 19 “terrorists”—a reference to
Muslim militants—had been killed and buried in the area. Rakhine officials have
yet to announce under which laws they plan to sue the AP.