Myanmar army committing more war crimes: Rights group

YANGON, Myanmar

Following the ethnic cleansing campaign against minority Rohingya Muslims, Myanmar's military is committing more war crimes and human rights violations, this time in efforts against a Buddhist-based rebel group, according to a new Amnesty International report.

“Less than two years since the world outrage over the mass atrocities committed against the Rohingya population, the Myanmar military is again committing horrific abuses against ethnic groups in Rakhine State,” said Nicholas Bequelin, the group’s East and Southeast Asia director, on Wednesday.

Fighting has been escalating between the military and Arakan Army -- a predominantly Buddhist ethnic group fighting for greater autonomy of the region -- since the group launched synchronized attacks on police stations in early January, killing 13 officers.

“The new operations in Rakhine State show an unrepentant, unreformed and unaccountable military terrorizing civilians and committing widespread violations as a deliberate tactic,” said Bequelin in a statement.

Amnesty said war crimes and other atrocities were being committed by soldiers from the Western Military Command based in Rakhine state, the same military units involved in the 2017 campaign that forced some 750,000 Rohingya to flee cross-border to neighboring Bangladesh.

Amnesty accused the military of carrying out extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, and enforced disappearances.

Other communities, including the Rohingya, have also suffered in this campaign, said the report.

“A military helicopter opened fire on Rohingya labourers cutting bamboo, killing at least six men and boys and injuring at least 13 others on 3 April,” it said.

The report also said the Arakan Army has committed rights violations against civilians, though on a lesser scale.

The reported is based on interviews with ethnic groups including Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya Muslims living in conflict-affected areas in late March, said Amnesty, adding it also reviewed photos, videos and satellite imagery, and interviewed humanitarian officials, human rights activists, and other experts.

It said the fresh evidence lends even greater urgency for the UN to act on the full range of atrocity crimes committed by the Myanmar military in Rakhine and other ethnic minority areas.

“Again and again, the international community has failed to stop the Myanmar military’s crimes and protect the civilian population,” said Bequelin.

“The Security Council was established to respond to exactly these kinds of situations, it’s time it took its responsibility seriously.”