Myanmar army faces new war crimes charge

HORRIFYING abuses of human rights have been committed by the Myanmar army, claims a new report from human rights campaign Amnesty International. These include summary killing, torture, arbitrary arrest – and a vendetta against an ethnic Buddhist guerrilla group.

The Myanmar have denied Amnesty’s allegations – just as they denied having persecuted the Rohingya people. Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled the country, mostly to neighbouring Bangladesh, and have testified to the contrary.

“Less than two years since the world outrage over the mass atrocities committed against the Rohingya population, the Myanmar military is again committing horrific abuses against ethnic groups in Rakhine state” Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty’s regional director for East and South-East Asia, said in a statement. “The new operations in Rakhine state show an unrepentant, unreformed and unaccountable military terrorising civilians and committing widespread violations as a deliberate tactic.”

A spokesperson for the army, Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, denied these allegations. Speaking to the AFP news agency, he claimed that the Myanmar army was on an operation to clear terrorists and had worked hard to avoid harming civilians.

Amnesty believes that up to 30,000 Buddhist civilians have fled their homes during recent fighting.

•For more information about the Amnesty International’s investigation into and report on war crimes in Myanmar, go to:
Amnesty International

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