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News > World

Human Rights Groups Slammed Myanmar for Report That Found No Innocents Were Killed

  • Myanmar's military has spared no Rohingya from violence, including young children, witnesses say

    Myanmar's military has spared no Rohingya from violence, including young children, witnesses say | Photo: Reuters

Published 14 November 2017
Opinion

"The military's grave crimes committed with impunity are exactly what the International Criminal Court was created for," Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch, said.

As people fleeing violence in Myanmar relate the horrors of escaping military violence, Myanmar army released a report late night Monday in which it concluded there were "no deaths of innocent people." 

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Facebook Stifles Rohingya Reports of Ethnic Cleansing

The report has been widely criticized by several human rights groups in the region. One of the human rights group also sought an investigation by the  International Criminal Court.  

"The Burmese military's absurd effort to absolve itself of mass atrocities underscores why an independent international investigation is needed to establish the facts and identify those responsible," Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Tuesday. 

"The military's grave crimes committed with impunity are exactly what the International Criminal Court was created for." 

"The Burmese authorities have once again shown that they can't and won't credibly investigate themselves," Adams added. 

The report stated that nearly 376 "terrorists" were killed in fighting during the August attacks. The report published on Facebook extensively places the blame on ARSA members who the report says used a wide array of ammunition to initiate the so-called terrorist attacks. 

Contradicting the army report, several Rohingya who fled violence have already detailed accounts of mass killings, brutal beatings, torture and rape against Rohingya children, women, and men.

"Our findings are quite clear on what is happening," spokesman Jeremy Laurence said, in a statement, that the UN investigators in Bangladesh have found sufficient evidence showing the killing and torture of civilians in Myanmar.

"What we found took place in Rakhine state… is a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, murder, rape, assault, killings, torture. We heard [this] from people… over and over again," Lawrence added. 

Irish musician and activist Bob Geldof also called Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi “a handmaiden to genocide." Irish Rockers U2 who had campaigned for Suu Kyi's release when she was a political prisoner also expressed their disappointment.

“Who could have predicted that if more than 600,000 people were fleeing from a brutal army for fear of their lives, the woman who many of us believed would have the clearest and loudest voice on the crisis would go quiet,” the band said in a statement.

Nearly 600,000 Rohingya, who have been displaced from the Rakhine state in the exodus described as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" by the UN, are now living in deplorable conditions in makeshift camps in regions bordering Bangladesh. 

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