HRW: Rohingya Muslims describe Myanmar army’s cruelty

By Kubra Chohan

ANKARA

In a report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday, Rohingya survivors from the village of Tula Toli described how women and children were burned, raped and murdered by Myanmar's security forces.

Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW, said: "The Burmese [Myanmar] army’s atrocities at Tula Toli were not just brutal, they were systematic."

"Soldiers carried out killings and rapes of hundreds of Rohingya with a cruel efficiency that could only come with advance planning," Adams said.

HRW interviewed 18 Rohingya survivors and witnesses who fled to Bangladesh following atrocities they say were committed in the Tula Toli village of the Rakhine state in late September-early October.

Since Aug. 25, more than 656,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN. The refugees are fleeing a military operation that has seen security forces and Buddhist mobs kill men, women and children, loot homes and torch Rohingya villages.

Hassina Begum, a 20-year-old woman surviving the massacre, gave her account of what happened in the Rakhine state: "[The soldiers] were taking the children from their mothers, killing some of them and throwing them into the fire. So I tried to hide my daughter under my headscarf so no one could see her. I acted like I didn't have any children with me."

But her child was taken from her and thrown alive into the fire.

"What could I do? I was standing there and crying. But they forced us to leave, they took us away by force [...The soldier who took my daughter] had a knife in his hand and a rifle over his shoulder," she told HRW.

Shawfika, 24, also witnessed atrocities. "I woke up and realized I was in a pool of sticky blood. I tried to wake the others up but they didn't move. Then I broke through the [bamboo] wall and escaped [...]When I escaped from the house, all the houses in the area were on fire. I could hear women screaming from some of the other houses. They could not escape from the fires."

Rajuma Begum, 20, said her 16-month-old toddler, and two other children aged five and seven, were killed with machetes while the mothers were forced to watch. The three mothers were then raped by the soldiers.

"When they were done, I was hit twice afterward [with a heavy wooden stick], on my head and my chin. They beat us all until we were half dead, and then they set the house on fire," she said.

Mumtaz Begum, 30, told HRW how she escaped from a house on fire.

"All four of my children were with me, I was holding them. They smashed the baby first, then they killed the two boys, first hitting them with sticks and then with machetes.

“I broke through the wall, and my daughter was already outside. I tried to go back to get the bodies of my children, but they were already on fire so we had to leave them.”

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

At least 9,000 Rohingya were killed in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24, according to Doctors Without Borders.

In a report published on Dec. 12, the global humanitarian organization said that the deaths of 71.7 percent or 6,700 Rohingya were caused by violence. They include 730 children below the age of 5.

The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.