Monday, May 28, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Mandalay Police Seek 2 Men in 6 Million Kyat Gold Shop Heist

Posted: 28 May 2018 04:03 AM PDT

MANDALAY – Police in Mandalay are searching for two men who robbed a gold shop in Chanmya Tharsi Township on Monday.

A man wielding a knife made off with gold bangles worth more than 6 million kyats from the Shwesin Myintmo Gold Shop with the help of a partner driving a motorcycle.

"A man came in and said he wanted to buy a gold bangle for his wife. I asked him whether his wife was large or small, and how much she wanted to spend. He didn't reply," said shop owner Ma Marlar.

"After he didn't reply, I started talking to another customer. [The first man] suddenly took out a knife and pointed it at me. He smashed the display case, grabbed a handful of gold bangles and ran out," she said.

The shop owner said that her mother and brother and started yelling out that the shop had been robbed. Some passersby tried to stop the thieves, but they were able to escape on the motorcycle.

"That man who robbed me was waving his knife around so that no one could approach them. Some men tried to follow them but they drove so fast that no one could catch them," Ma Marlar said.

According to Chanmya Tharsi Township police, the gold shop's CCTV system was not working at the time due to a power outage. However, local and divisional police are coordinating their efforts to arrest the culprits.

"Although we do not know the faces of the robbers, the victim and other witnesses said that the man wielding the knife is thin and one of his legs is a bit weak," a duty officer at Chanmya Tharsi Township police station said.

According to police, the men stole gold bangles weighing about 116.242 grams. The case was registered as a robbery at Regional Police Station No. 10.

"We are combing all of Mandalay with cooperation from divisional police to find the culprits," said the duty officer.

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Rohingya Crisis is Just the Tip of a Dark Iceberg

Posted: 28 May 2018 02:40 AM PDT

During a recent trip to the United States, an American told me how she used to have a good relationship with her Burmese neighbors, who had lived in New York for a long time. However, the family stopped talking to her after she tried to raise the Rohingya issue with them, she said.

This was a story of a divided neighborhood overseas. But, there are many more such divided neighborhoods in Myanmar.

The international community has been well informed about the human rights abuses committed by the Myanmar Army against the Rohingya in the state of Rakhine. There is much sympathy for the ethnic group, which fled en masse to Bangladesh after the Myanmar Army launched a massive military sweep in the west of the state last year.

The international community is considering how it can help the Rohingya regain their human dignity as equals based on human rights. It cannot accept how the Tatmadaw has treated them, burned their houses, tortured, arrested and put many of them in prison. All human beings should be treated equally – that is the view of the international community.

During my one-week visit, I gave some public talks about the decline of press freedom in Myanmar. I met US State Department officials and some members of Congress to brief them about how press freedoms in the country have been curtailed.

U.S. government officials and members of Congress are generally well informed about the political situation in Myanmar, and were happy to listen to our stories about how press freedom is increasingly being restricted. They even asked what they could do to help boost media freedoms in the country. They said the U.S. government was not happy to see the political situation in Myanmar deteriorating and expressed a desire to see it move forward under the government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who gained international recognition and a Nobel Peace prize for her long pro-democracy struggle.

But people asked me most about the Rohingya.

I was surprised to meet one member of Congress who just seemed to want us to listen to him talk about the Rohingya, instead of listening to our accounts of the state of press freedom. He seemed to think that if the Myanmar government gave full citizenship to the Rohingya, then all their problems would be solved.

I told him about a case I came across at a refugee camp in Myae Pone Township in Rakhine State. There were some Rohingya there who had been granted full citizenship cards, but they still could not leave the camp. It did not matter what cards they possessed. The more important thing, I told him, was that they had the freedom to travel and work. We spent about 40 minutes talking about the Rohingya, and did not get the chance to bring up the issue of media rights with him.

There are ongoing investigations by different U.S. government departments about rights abuses committed by the Myanmar Army against the Rohingya. Washington has vowed to target certain Army and government officials with sanctions, based on the recommendations of the different government departments.

The Rohingya crisis is one of the biggest international issues today. Yet, there are other issues in Myanmar, especially in Kachin State, where fighting has been raging for almost two months. There are 150,000 Kachin IDPs who have had to flee their homes due to the fighting and amid widespread reports of human rights abuses by the Myanmar Army.

The Myanmar Army's actions against the ethnic Kachin are not much different to what it has done to the Rohingya. But most normal civilians from the international community know very little about the six-decade long civil war between the Myanmar Army and the ethnic rebel groups in the country.

The ethnic groups have suffered many different types of abuses at the hands of the Myanmar Army, and they want the international community to know their situation is not dissimilar to that of the Rohingya. It is time is to bring the two issues together. Both the Rohingya and the ethnic groups have been targets of human rights abuses. But while the international community talks about one, it seems to ignore the other.

The post Rohingya Crisis is Just the Tip of a Dark Iceberg appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Govt Orders Fix of Buddha Statues With ‘Disgraceful’ Hand Gestures

Posted: 28 May 2018 02:33 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture has ordered monasteries in Naypyitaw and Mandalay to correct statues of the Buddha with mudras, or ritual hand gestures, that go against Theravada Buddhist scripture or face legal action.

Monasteries in Mandalay have agreed to correct their Buddha statues after the ministry asked them to do so through its Sangha Maha Nayaka township committees, said U Zarni Win, the ministry’s deputy permanent secretary.

"As the township Sangha Maha Nayaka committees have advised, Buddha statues with those mudras are being fixed in Mandalay. And we're also asking that they be corrected in Naypyitaw," he said.

Buddha images with unusual hand gestures had to be corrected at the Waibunla Rama Makhara Monastery in Mandalay's Chanayethazan Township.

"We've warned the sculptors who sculpted those statues, and also asked the concerned township Sangha Maha Nayaka committees to give advice to monasteries that accept such Buddha statues. If they ignore the order, we'll take legal action under Section 295 (a) for insulting the religion," he added.

Article 295 (a) of the Penal Code says that anyone who deliberately insults someone’s religion or religious belief with words or “visible representation” will be punished with up to two years in prison, a fine, or both.

Ashin Sandimarsara, the abbot of Seindamuni Monastery on Mt. Min Wun in Pyinmana, Naypyitaw, who has created Buddha statues with unusual mudras, told The Irrawaddy that the gestures date back to the Pagan Kingdom, which lasted from the 9th to the 13th century, and that people were criticizing him because they have not seen such gestures before.

"They criticize me because they have no knowledge. I am fine with their criticism. They say there are no such gestures and that such statues are not Buddha images. They criticize for the position of the hand being put behind the back. I am not angry. Pyinmana residents have also filed complaints," the abbot said.

There are over 200 Buddha statues and stupas on the mountain. Many of them were donated by senior military officials including Thura U Shwe Mann, a former general who is now chairman of Parliament’s Commission for the Assessment of Legal Affairs and Special Issues. Other donors include military commanders, high-ranking government officials and large companies.

The abbot said some officials from the ruling National League for Democracy also visit him.

A Buddha statue with an unauthorized mudra is displayed at the Seindamuni Monastery in Pyinmana, Naypyitaw. / Htet Naing Zaw / The Irrawaddy

"Officials from the Religious Affairs Department have come and checked here. They are young and they haven't seen the world,” Ashin Sandimarsara said.

According to the ministry, there are 108 mudras on Buddha statues and that 57 of them are commonly used. Of the 57, 24 are in line with Theravada Buddhist scripture.

U Zarni Win said the other mudras were “disgraceful.”

Burmese traditional artists and historians said the function of the mudras was to help depict the life of the Buddha.

"For example, the bhumiphasa mudra, a common mudra seen on many Buddha images in the country, represents the Lord Buddha asking the goddess of the earth to witness his enlightenment when he was threatened by the evil king," said Tampawaddy U Win Maung, a Burmese traditional artist and historian.

In the bhumiphasa mudra, the fingers of the right hand of the Buddha touch the ground while the left palm faces up on the Buddha’s lap.

"The hand gestures seen in Naypyitaw and Mandalay are mixed up with Mahayana Buddhism, Hinduism and Yoga hand positions, which are not at all related to our Theravada Buddhism," Tampawaddy U Win Maung said.

He said Buddha images with the unauthorized mudras were created by bogus monks in the 17th century in Shan State and were later destroyed on the king's orders.

"I think the sculptors or the donors or the people who accepted these Buddha images do not understand the use of mudras and just want to use them as idols to change their karma," he added.

The Buddha images in Naypyitaw and Mandalay commonly have one hand behind the back and the other in front with the palm facing outward.

"The position means the Buddha image is protecting from misfortune from both behind and the front, and donating to it or worshiping it will protect the devotee in same way," Tampawaddy U Win Maung said. "But what the Buddha has taught us is to follow his way, not to build such idols to fulfill our desires by worshiping them."

"If the authorities plan to take legal action, they should do it seriously to stop the disgrace of Theravada Buddhism and the country's culture, not just issue the order," he said.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Malaysians Make Record Bust of Crystal Meth, Shipped from Myanmar

Posted: 28 May 2018 01:52 AM PDT

NILAI, Malaysia — Malaysia has made its largest ever seizure of crystal methamphetamine, officials said on Monday, finding nearly 1.2 tons of the drug disguised as tea in a shipment from Myanmar, and arrested six suspected traffickers.

The bust comes as Southeast Asia reports a flood of the stimulant throughout the region. Indonesia and Thailand have also made record seizures of the drug this year.

A total of 1,187 kg of the drug, worth 71 million ringgit ($18 million), was shipped in a container from Yangon, Myanmar, to Port Klang, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Customs Director-General Subromaniam Tholasy told reporters.

“This is the biggest seizure seen in our history in terms of value and weight,” he said.

Crystal methamphetamine is a form of methamphetamine, a highly addictive synthetic drug also known as speed, shabu and yaba.

The shipment, seized on Tuesday, had been declared “foodstuff” and was bound for a Malaysian trading company based in a Kuala Lumpur suburb, Subromaniam said.

Customs officials displayed the shipment, packed in golden yellow tea packets, at their narcotics operations headquarters in Nilai, near Kuala Lumpur.

Three Myanmar nationals and three Malaysians were arrested during the operation.

“We are still investigating, but we believe the syndicate involved has links with syndicates in Myanmar,” Subromaniam said, adding that officials also seized a small amount of heroin and about 1 million contraband cigarettes.

The methamphetamine market has expanded at an alarming rate in Asia, with experts in several countries in the region reporting an increase in its use in 2015.

Methamphetamine represents the greatest global health threat, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in a 2017 World Drug report.

Myanmar has for decades been a producer of opium and its refined form, heroin, and has become the source of most of Southeast Asia’s methamphetamine, which is mostly produced in lawless border regions outside the government’s control.

The post Malaysians Make Record Bust of Crystal Meth, Shipped from Myanmar appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

NLD Confirms Anti-Graft Agency Has No Power to Take Legal Action Against Lawmakers

Posted: 28 May 2018 01:03 AM PDT

Naypyitaw—The Anti-Corruption Commission is not authorized to take direct legal action against elected lawmakers under the anti-corruption law, said Dr Myo Nyunt, spokesperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD).

The recent resignation of Planning and Finance Minister U Kyaw Win, who was elected to the Lower House from Yangon's Dagon Seikkan Township in the 2015 general election, due to a corrpution scandal, suggests that the commission has a limited mandate when it comes to prosecuting corrupt government officials, with punishment left up to the party that appointed them.

The President's Office approved the resignation of U Kyaw Win days after the commission confirmed that it had been investigating the case.

"When the commission receives complaints against lawmakers, they hand over the cases to us as they are not authorized by the law to take action against them," Dr Myo Nyunt said in Naypyitaw on Sunday.

"We can take action if a particular lawmaker negatively affects the party's image or there are hints of a scandal," he added.

U Han Nyunt, the commission's spokesperson, acknowledged that the agency's hands were tied in many cases involving elected officials, but added that it was better that lawmakers are disciplined according to parliamentary laws.

"We can take certain legal action. But frankly speaking, lawmakers should be disciplined by the parliament," he said.

U Nay Myo Tun, a lawmaker representing Htantabin Township in the Lower House, said no law existed to allow action to be taken against lawmakers. "Though the anti-corruption law says action can be taken against anyone, it is not the case for lawmakers even if they do commit an offence," he said.

The commission needs to seek the approval of the concerned parliamentary speaker before it can investigate lawmakers, and in the case of political position holders from deputy ministers and above, it might need to seek cabinet approval, he said.

"It is easy to take action against officials at the director-general and lower levels. But it is fairly difficult to take action against political position holders," U Nay Myo Tun said.

There have also been criticisms over delays in enacting the right to recall law. Section 396 of the 2008 Constitution states that a representative can be "recalled" for a number of reasons including high treason, breaching any provision of the Constitution, misconduct as prescribed in the Constitution, and inefficient discharge of their duties.

The NLD has disciplined nearly 40 lawmakers for breach of party rules and regulations since the 2015 elections, according to party officials. However, the punishments have been limited to a warning and suspension from party duties.

After the 2020 election, the ruling party may however dismiss law-breaking lawmakers from the party depending on the number and extent of their offences, said a Yangon Region lawmaker on condition of anonymity. "It doesn't expel them now perhaps because it doesn't want to lose its power in the parliament," he said.

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President Pardons Scores of Rohingya Detained While Returning from Bangladesh

Posted: 28 May 2018 12:38 AM PDT

YANGON – President U Win Myint has pardoned 58 displaced Rohingya who were detained while attempting to re-enter the country from Bangladesh.

According to a brief statement released by the State Counsellor's Office on Sunday, 62 returnees were arrested by local authorities for illegally crossing the border. The group was attempting to return to strife-torn northern Rakhine State's Maungdaw Township from a refugee camp in Bangladesh. They were traveling independently, and not according to procedures outlined in an official refugee repatriation agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh signed on Nov. 23, 2017.

Cases against four of the detainees were later dropped. The statement did not specify how many were ultimately imprisoned, or under which articles of the criminal code. It did not name the home villages of those arrested.

According to the statement, the group was returning from a camp in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazaar. This is the first time any refugees have attempted to return from Bangladesh, it said.

Despite the bilateral agreement, not a single person had been officially repatriated as of Monday. In April, a five-member family led by Alphata Arlon — an administrative official from Taungpyo Let Yar — who spent several months camped on the Myanmar side of the border voluntarily re-entered the Taungpyo Let Wei refugee reception center.

According to Sunday's statement, authorities released the detained returnees to Nga Khu Ya reception camp from Buthidaung Prison in order to fill out the necessary forms as specified under the bilateral agreement. Next they will be temporarily settled in Hla Phoe Khaung transit camp, a separate location in northern Maungdaw. The statement avoided applying the contentious terms "Rohingya" or "Bengali" and simply referred to them as "displaced persons."

The statement adds that authorities will not take action against any of the returnees unless they were involved in attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on government security outposts in August 2017. In response to the attacks, the Myanmar Army launched a counter-terrorism campaign that drove nearly 700,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh, creating what is currently the biggest refugee camp in the world. The Army has been accused of causing mass devastation and committing rights violations and arbitrary killings.

The United Nations Security Council, which sent a team to visit Bangladesh and northern Rakhine in early May, has described the military campaign as "ethnic cleansing" and urged Myanmar to cooperate in a credible independent investigation into alleged abuses by security forces and to allow the U.N.'s special rapporteur on human rights to return to Myanmar. The E.U. and the U.S. have imposed targeted sanctions against top military generals responsible for the violence in Maungdaw, while international human rights groups have called on the U.N. to bring high-ranking military officials before the International Criminal Court.

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President Nominates New Finance Minister Following Resignation

Posted: 27 May 2018 11:25 PM PDT

YANGON — President U Win Myint has nominated a new minister of planning and finance following last week’s resignation of U Kyaw Win, who is under investigation for corruption.

The president has nominated U Soe Win, a member of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), to replace the outgoing minister in a submission to the Union Parliament on Monday.

It is the most senior government post to be vacated since the NLD came to power in early 2016.

The government's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) began investigating U Kyaw Win days after receiving a complaint against him on May 3.

Before the probe was eventually confirmed, news reports had been circulating for weeks that the minister and his son were being investigated for corruption by both the ACC and the Home Affairs Ministry’s Bureau of Special Investigation.

Their home in Yangon was searched and U Kyaw Win has been banned from leaving the country, according to reports.

U Soe Win, 80, is currently the country managing director of Deloitte Touche Myanmar Vigour Advisory Ltd. He has over 30 years of professional experience in international banking with the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) and has been an advisor to Myanmar’s taxation, investment law and banking sectors.

He is also a senior member of the NLD Central Economic Committee.  According to the independent Renaissance Institute Myanmar, U Soe Win joined the Foreign Exchange Department of MFTB as deputy manager in 1961.

He was sent to the UK for training with National Westminster Bank and the Bank of England in 1976. He was appointed deputy controller of foreign exchange at MFTB in 1990 and general manager in 1993.

He left MFTB to join Pricewaterhouse Associates Ltd in 1996. In 2003 he founded Myanmar Vigour Co., Ltd, which became a member firm of Deloitte in June 2015.

U Soe Win is also a member of the Bar Council in Yangon. He was extensively involved in drafting banking laws and regulations and fiscal policies during his tenure with the state bank.

The post President Nominates New Finance Minister Following Resignation appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

China to Host Iran to Avoid Project Disruption Amid Nuclear Deal Doubt

Posted: 27 May 2018 09:46 PM PDT

BEIJING — China will host Iranian President Hassan Rouhani next month at a regional summit aimed at avoiding disruption of joint projects, its foreign ministry said on Monday, as major powers scramble to save Iran’s nuclear deal after the United States pulled out.

Rouhani will pay a working visit to China and attend the summit of the China and Russia-led security bloc the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the ministry said.

It did not give exact dates for his visit, but the summit is scheduled to be held on the second weekend of June in the northern Chinese city of Qingdao.

Iran is currently an observer member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, though it has long sought full membership.

“Our hope is that China and Iran will have close consultation on the basis of observing the deal and push forward development of bilateral cooperation,” Chinese deputy foreign minister Zhang Hanhui said at a briefing.

“We should together look into how to avoid major disruption of joint projects between the two sides,” he added.

Russia has previously argued that with Western sanctions against Tehran lifted, it could finally become a member of the bloc, which also includes four ex-Soviet Central Asian republics, Pakistan and India.

The 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers lifted international sanctions on Tehran. In return, Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear activities, increasing the time it would need to produce an atom bomb if it chose to do so.

Since US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States this month, calling the agreement deeply flawed, European states have been scrambling to ensure Iran gets enough economic benefits to persuade it to stay in the deal.

China has also strongly supported the deal and is one of its signatories.

The post China to Host Iran to Avoid Project Disruption Amid Nuclear Deal Doubt appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

US Team in North Korea For Talks on Summit, Trump Says

Posted: 27 May 2018 09:29 PM PDT

SEOUL/WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said on Sunday a US team had arrived in North Korea to prepare for a proposed summit between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which Trump pulled out of last week before reconsidering.

Earlier, the US State Department said US and North Korean officials had met at Panmunjom, a village in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that runs along the heavily armed border between North and South Korea.

“Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself,” Trump wrote on Twitter, in Washington’s first confirmation that US officials had entered North Korea for the talks.

“I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!” Trump added.

In addition to those talks, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said a “pre-advance team” left for Singapore — where the summit has been expected to take place — on Sunday morning to work on logistics.

Earlier on Sunday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he and North Korea’s Kim had agreed during a surprise meeting on Saturday that the North Korea-US summit must be held.

The weekend talks were the latest twist in a week of diplomatic ups and downs over the prospects for an unprecedented US-North Korea summit, and the strongest sign yet that the two Koreas’ leaders are trying to keep the meeting on track.

North Korea has faced years of economic sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs since it conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.

The United States has struggled to slow the isolated country’s weapons programs, which have become a security priority for Washington given Pyongyang’s promise to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.

A US official told Reuters that Sung Kim, the former US ambassador to South Korea, would lead an American delegation to meet North Korean officials at the border. Pentagon official Randall Schriver was part of the US team, the official said.

The Washington Post first reported that the team, which also included Allison Hooker, the Korea expert on the White House National Security Council, met with Choe Son Hui, the North Korean vice foreign minister.

The Post said the talks at the border would continue on Monday and Tuesday at Tongilgak, the North’s building in Panmunjom, where the truce suspending the 1950-53 Korean War was signed.

In their meeting on Saturday, Kim reaffirmed his commitment to “complete” denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and to a planned summit with Trump, Moon told reporters in Seoul.

“Chairman Kim and I have agreed that the June 12 summit should be held successfully, and that our quest for the Korean Peninsula’s denuclearization and a perpetual peace regime should not be halted,” Moon said.

Moon acknowledged Pyongyang and Washington may have differing expectations of what denuclearization means and he urged both sides to hold working-level talks to resolve their differences.

The United States has demanded the “complete, verifiable, and irreversible” dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang has rejected unilateral disarmament and has always couched its language in terms of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

In previous, failed talks, North Korea said it could consider giving up its arsenal if Washington removed its troops from South Korea and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan.

North Korea has tested dozens of missiles of various types in the past two years, including one launch of its largest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile, which is theoretically capable of hitting anywhere in the United States, on Nov. 29.Mistrust on both sides

American officials are skeptical that Kim will ever fully abandon his nuclear arsenal. Moon said North Korea was not convinced it could trust security guarantees from the United States.

“However, during the US-South Korea summit, President Trump clearly emphasized that we may see not only the end of hostile relations but also economic cooperation if North Korea denuclearizes,” Moon said.

Moon met Trump in Washington on Tuesday in an effort to keep the US-North Korea summit on track.

A senior South Korean official said later the two Koreas were discussing a possible non-aggression pledge and the start of peace treaty talks as a way of addressing Pyongyang’s security concerns before US-North Korean negotiations.

A statement from North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, said Kim expressed “his fixed will” on the possibility of meeting Trump as previously planned.

Trump on Thursday scrapped the summit after repeated threats by North Korea to pull out over what it saw as confrontational remarks by US officials demanding unilateral disarmament.

On May 16, North Korea criticized US national security adviser John Bolton, who had called for North Korea to quickly give up its nuclear arsenal in a deal that would mirror Libya’s abandonment of its program for weapons of mass destruction.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and killed by NATO-backed militants in 2011 after halting his nascent nuclear program.

Trump dismissed the so-called Libya model. Sanders, his spokeswoman, told Fox News on May 15: “This is the President Trump model. He's going to run this the way he sees fit.”

Kim had requested a meeting with Moon to clarify what the “Trump model” meant, Yonhap news agency of South Korea reported, citing an unidentified foreign affairs source.

Kim and Trump’s initial decision to meet followed months of war threats and insults between the leaders over the North’s nuclear program.

Trump said on Saturday he was still looking at a June 12 summit in Singapore and that talks were going well.

The post US Team in North Korea For Talks on Summit, Trump Says appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Rohingya Insurgents Reject Amnesty Report on Hindu Villagers Killed in Myanmar

Posted: 27 May 2018 09:12 PM PDT

YANGON — A Rohingya Muslim armed group denied on Friday a report by human rights group Amnesty International that its members had killed scores of Hindu civilians last August, amid a surge in violence in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine State.

In its report, published last week, Amnesty documented in detail atrocities it said had been committed by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) near a remote village in Rakhine State.

The report, citing witnesses, including Hindu women who said they were abducted by ARSA insurgents, said fighters from the group killed as many as 99 Hindus near Kha Maung Seik after launching the raids on security posts on August 25.

“We categorically deny all of these unjustifiable and careless serious criminal accusations mentioned in the said report,” ARSA said in a statement signed by its leader, Ata Ullah, and posted on social media network Twitter late on Friday.

Myanmar’s military response to the Rohingya insurgent attacks have driven nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee from northern Rakhine to neighboring Bangladesh, in what the United Nations and aid agencies have called “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Myanmar has rejected the accusations of ethnic cleansing, as well as most of the accounts of killings and rape recounted by many of the refugees arriving in Bangladesh.

Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s crisis response director, said the group “absolutely stands by the findings” of its investigation and urged Myanmar authorities to allow unfettered access to northern Rakhine for UN and other independent investigators.

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