Myanmar army admits Rohingya Muslims’ killing
Yangon, (MILLAT ONLINE)::Myanmar’s army has admitted for the first time that its soldiers were involved in the killing of Rohingya Muslims in recent violence in Rakhine state, the MIA reports.
It said an inquiry had found that four members of the security forces were involved in the killing of 10 people in Inn Din village near Maungdaw. Myanmar has been accused of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Rakhine state.
More than 650,000 Rohingya have fled into neighbouring Bangladesh since violence erupted last August, with terrible stories of mass murder, rape and torture.
They accuse the military, backed by local Buddhist mobs, of burning their villages and attacking and killing civilians.
Myanmar’s military has denied targeting civilians.
Myanmar has refused to allow journalists and external investigators into Rakhine to look into the allegations of abuses.
The military announced last month that it would investigate a grave containing 10 skeletons that had been found near Inn Din.
The results of the investigation, published on the military commander-in-chief’s Facebook page, said the massacre took place on September 2, 2017.
“It is true that both the villagers and security forces admitted they killed Rohingya,” it said.
“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 also involved in these killings.”
This is a rare admission of wrongdoing by the Myanmar military. In November, the military exonerated itself of blame in the recent violence, and flat out denied killing any Rohingya people, burning villages, raping women and girls and stealing possessions.
UN human rights investigator Yanghee Lee had been due to visit Myanmar this month but was banned in December after the government accused her of not being “impartial and objective”. She said the decision to block her suggested “something terribly awful” was happening in Rakhine.