Security forces took part in killing 10 Rohingya, Myanmar army says
Myanmar army chief's office admits for the first time the existence of a mass grave of the Muslim minority in Rakhine state, saying the security forces took part in the massacre of 10 Rohingya.
Mohammad Rafiq, a Rohingya Muslim man, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, fills the mass grave of his three kids with soil as villagers bury them after their boat capsized near Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh, October 16, 2017.
Myanmar security forces and Buddhist villagers killed 10 Rohingya Muslims whose bodies were found in a mass grave in a village in troubled Rakhine state, the country's military acknowledged on Wednesday.
The massacre took place on September 2 in the village of Inn Din in Rakhine state, the Facebook posting said, as tensions escalated pitting Rohingya against security forces and ethnic Rakhine locals following the killing of a Rakhine man.
The Rohingya found in the mass grave had threatened Buddhist villagers and were killed in retaliation, a statement on the military commander-in-chief's Facebook page said.
"Some villagers from Inn Din village and security members confessed they killed 10 Bengali terrorists," the office said in its post, using a pejorative term for Rohingya and blaming militants for causing the unrest in the village.
It's a start: #Myanmar Army reportedly admits to killing 10 #Rohingya found in mass grave. Reuters journalists Wa Lone & Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested for investigating the grave. Not to mention thousands upon thousands of other Rohingya civilians slaughtered in the last year... https://t.co/NJTDjyJWft
— Matthew Smith (@matthewfsmith) January 10, 2018
The public admission of wrongdoing is the military's first since it launched "clearance operations" against ethnic Rohingya in August, prompting more than 650,000 to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh in what the UN has called "ethnic cleansing."
"The army will take charge of those who are responsible for the killings and who broke the rules of engagement. This incident happened because ethnic Buddhist villagers were threatened and provoked by the terrorists."
In its account, the office said security forces captured 10 Rohingya militants before killing them as violence engulfed Inn Din village and its surrounding area.
"The decision was made to kill them at a cemetery," the post added.
This would appear to be a rather serious admission: it was found there was a breach of rules of engagement by security forces and some villagers, which led to the deaths of the ten Rohingya whose corpses were found buried at Inn Dinn cemetery https://t.co/HUWyRt1jkr
— Kayleigh E. Long (@ayleighk) January 10, 2018
Accusations of atrocities
The UN and other groups accuse the military of widespread atrocities against Rohingya, including killings, rapes and the burning of homes.
But the military has insisted that there has been no wrongdoing by any security forces.
The government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar has refused to accept Rohingya Muslims as a minority group, even though they have lived in the country for generations. They are widely called "Bengalis" and are accused of migrating illegally from Bangladesh.
Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship in 1982, denying them almost all rights and rendering them stateless.
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