Myanmar army removes general in charge of Rakhine state

Myanmar's army has replaced the general in charge of Rakhine state following a military crackdown that has driven more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighbouring Bangladesh amid reports of mass rape, torture and other crimes against humanity.

No reason was given as to why Major General Maung Maung Soe was transferred from his post as the head of Western Command in Rakhine.

His transfer was ordered on Friday and Brigadier General Soe Tint Naing, whose previous role was as a director for logistics, had been appointed as the new head of Western Command.

"I don't know the reason why he was transferred," Major General Aye Lwin, deputy director of the psychological warfare and public relation department at the Ministry of Defence, told Reuters. 

"He wasn't moved into any position at present, he has been put in reserve."

The move comes ahead of a visit on Wednesday by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is expected to deliver a stern message to Myanmar's generals.

Myanmar's national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, criticised in the West for failing to halt the atrocities, has had little control over the generals.

Senators in Washington are pressing to pass legislation imposing economic and travel sanctions targeting the military and its business interests.

Leaders of Asian nations meeting in Manila on Monday skirted around the mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims, disappointing human rights groups who were hoping for a tough stand on the crisis.

Sexual violence

Myanmar soldiers "systematically targeted" Rohingya women for gang rape during violence against the minority Muslim community which triggered an exodus to Bangladesh, a United Nations special envoy said on Sunday.

Pramila Patten, a special representative of the UN Secretary-General on sexual violence in conflict, made the comments after visiting Bangladesh's southeastern district of Cox's Bazar where some 610,000 Rohingya have taken refuge in the last ten weeks.

Many of these atrocities "could be crimes against humanity," she said.

"I heard horrific stories of rape and gang rape, with many of the women and girls who died as a result of the rape," Patten told reporters in Dhaka.

"My observations point to a pattern of widespread atrocities, including sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls who have been systematically targeted on account of their ethnicity and religion."

The sexual violence in Myanmar's northern state of Rakhine was "commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the armed forces of Myanmar," she said.

"The forms of sexual violence we consistently heard about from survivors include gang rape by multiple soldiers, forced public nudity and humiliation and sexual slavery in military captivity."

"One survivor described being held in captivity by the Myanmar armed forces for 45 days, during which time she was repeatedly raped. Others still bore visible scars, bruises and bite marks attesting to their ordeal," Patten added.

The special representative said others involved in the sexual violence include Myanmar border police and militias composed of Buddhists and other ethnic groups in Rakhine.

Mass exodus

Refugees are still streaming across the border from Rakhine into Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands have settled in squalid camps.

The UN now estimates the majority of the Rohingya once living in Rakhine – previously estimated at around one million – have fled a campaign of violence it has likened to ethnic cleansing.

Patten said the sexual violence was a key reason behind the exodus and occurred in the context of "collective persecution" of the Rohingya.

"The widespread threat and use of sexual violence was clearly a driver and push factor for forced displacement on a massive scale and a calculated tool of terror aimed at the extermination and the removal of the Rohingya as a group," she said.

For decades the Rohingya have faced persecution in Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship and denigrated as illegal "Bengali" immigrants.