Myanmar’s government has concluded that no crimes against humanity occurred in violence last year in northern Rakhine State that forced tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh and led to UN accusations.
Speaking at the release of the Rakhine Investigative Commission’s final report, Burmese First Vice President Myint Swe — a former general — on Sunday told reporters that “there is no evidence of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights claimed.”
He also denied charges that there had been gang rapes by the military as it swept through Rohingya villages in a security clearance operation.
Photo: EPA
The army was reacting to deadly attacks against border police posts by a previously unknown insurgent group in October last year in the Maungdaw area of Rakhine.
The commission’s report said that some things might have happened that broke the law, attributing it to excessive action on the part of individual members of the security forces.
Rights groups have previously expressed their doubts over the commission’s work, saying it lacked outside experts, had poor research methodologies and lacked credibility because it was not independent.
The UN has mandated its own fact-finding mission to travel to the Maungdaw area to conduct its own inquiry, but the government has said its members would not be allowed to go.
Commission senior member Zaw Myint Pe said the report released in early February by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which included accusations of rights abuses by security forces, had failed to take into consideration violent acts committed by Muslim groups.
“The report does not contain forward-looking constructive recommendations, but instead accuses Myanmar of committing genocide and ethnic cleansing by killing Muslims and it is terribly affecting our country’s image,” Zaw Myint Pe said.
The government has shut down northern Rakhine — where allegations of rights abuses are ongoing — to independent journalists, rights experts and humanitarian workers for nearly nine months.
The security forces launched an aggressive clearance operation in Rakhine in October last year after shadowy insurgents killed nine border guard police officers.
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