GENEVA :- A U.N. report released Friday charges that thousands of Rohingya
children, women, and men have suffered gang rapes, killings, beatings,
disappearances and other acts of cruelty at the hands of Myanmar's police and
security forces. The report, issued by the office of the U.N. High Commissioner
for Human Rights, documents testimony from 204 women and men who are among
66,000 Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar's northern Rakhine
State since Oct. 9.
"For me personally, I have not
ever encountered a situation in which you have interviewed so many people in
such a short period of time, who have undergone such serious violations,"
said Linnea Arvidsson, mission leader of a four-member team of U.N. human
rights investigators. Arvidsson told VOA that she was "on the verge of
breaking down" on the first day after having interviewed an endless stream
of women who recounted horrific tales.
"Mothers who would say, 'I was
raped and my baby was crying and they slit the throat of my baby while I was
being raped.' I mean, it was horrendous. “Frankly, it was absolutely unbearable
to do the interviews," Arvidsson said. "I cannot imagine what they
have gone through when they lived through that."
Of the 101 women interviewed, more than half
reported they had been raped or suffered other forms of sexual violence. In
commenting on the report, High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said,
"The devastating cruelty to which these Rohingya children have been
subjected is unbearable."What kind of hatred could make a man stab a baby
crying out for his mother's milk?" he asked. The investigators have
concluded that Myanmar may be guilty of crimes against humanity.
Myanmar’s
response
A
spokesman for the Myanmar government, which was provided an advance copy of the
report, told VOA it will conduct its own investigation into the charges. "We
found out that what they have written in the report is quite harsh," said
Zaw Htay, spokesman for Myanmar President Htin Kyaw. "We are deeply
concerned about it. Vice President U Myint Swe will lead a commission
investigating these allegations as soon as possible. If the investigation finds
and receives firm evidence on the allegations, we will take necessary
actions."
The
Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group, have been denied citizenship by subsequent
governments despite having lived in Myanmar for generations. The United Nations
has referred to them as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.
The
investigators conducted their interviews between Jan. 8 and 23 in the
Bangladeshi city of Cox's Bazar, near the border of Myanmar. Many had fled
across the border in response to a security sweep in Myanmar's neighboring
Rakhine State following a series of deadly attacks on police stations,
presumably by Rohingya extremists.
All
the witnesses said the abuses were committed by members of the Myanmar army,
border guards and part of the regular police forces. Many also said that the security
forces were accompanied by villagers they knew, who had taken part in the raids
and in the reported violations committed against the Rohingya inhabitants of
Rakhine State.
‘Unprecedented’ abuse
Arvidsson called the level of abuse meted out
to the Rohingya "unprecedented." She said one of the most striking
features of the document was the number of violations that were reported to the
investigators. "I must say we did not meet a single person out of the 204
that had not experienced some type of violation, " she said. "Either
their house had been burned or looted or a family member had disappeared or a
family member had been killed.
"Basically, we did not encounter anyone
that had not suffered any type of violation, which is extremely rare," she
said. The report cites cases of hundreds of houses, schools, markets, shops,
madrasas and mosques that had been burned by the army.
Stories were collected from people from
villages in Rakhine State of houses being set alight while the inhabitants were
inside, including elderly and disabled people; of indiscriminate killings, and
of people being denied access to emergency medical care.
Many witnesses and victims described
"being taunted while they were being beaten, raped or rounded up." High
Commissioner Zeid said the perpetrators of the violations, and those who
ordered them, must be held accountable. "The government of Myanmar must
immediately halt these grave human rights violations against its own people and
ensure that victims have access to justice, reparations and safety," Zeid
said.
Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the high
commissioner, said "the government of Myanmar has been denying that these
violations have been taking place so, we said, OK, give us access, we will go,
independently assess for ourselves what has happened to them." She said
access was denied, so her office deployed a team to the border to do its own
investigation.
"The results are even more terrible than
we had expected."
Shamdasani said Zeid may call upon the
Security Council or the Human Rights Council to take follow-up action based on
the report. "What is clear is that something needs to be done and the
government of Myanmar has the primary responsibility to halt these military
operations."
Emergency aid
Also on Friday, Malaysian Prime Minister
Najib Razak sent a ship carrying 2,200 tonnes (2,425 tons) of food and
emergency supplies to Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims, according to Reuters.
The shipment, bound for Myanmar's biggest
city and port of Yangon, has been organized by Malaysian Muslim groups, as well
as domestic and foreign aid groups. The ship is expected to arrive on Feb. 9 in
Yangon, where it will unload 500 tonnes of supplies, organizers said, before
heading to Teknaf, in Bangladesh across the border from Myanmar, where many
Rohingya refugees are camped.
Myanmar has not allowed the ship to sail to
Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, as organizers had hoped. Myanmar has also
insisted that the aid be distributed equally to both Buddhist and Muslim
communities. "We will receive the aid [from Malaysia] at Yangon
Port," said Dr. Win Myay Aye, Myanmar's minister for social welfare,
relief and resettlement told VOA. "Then under our Ministry's arrangement,
we will send them to Rakhine State and the state government will take
responsibility for distributing them to various communities mainly in Maung Taw
Tsp."
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