AI accuses Myanmar of crimes against humanity

Amnesty International has accused Myanmar’s security forces of committing crimes against humanity as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya women, men, and children have fled the country, ABC News reported.

In a report released on Wednesday Amnesty cited testimony from more 120 Rohingya men and women who have fled to Bangladesh in recent weeks, part of a half-a-million-strong exodus of people escaping a bloody army campaign.

Thirty medical professionals, aid workers, journalists and Bangladeshi officials, were also interviewed for the research, titled “My World Is Finished”, and Amnesty also referred to satellite imagery, as well as on-the-ground video footage.

Amnesty said some of the worst atrocities were committed in Min Gyi, or Tula Toli, a village identified by the Guardian as the site of what appeared to be a brutal massacre after army forces swept through on 30 August.

Evidence all points to the same conclusion, it said: “hundreds of thousands of Rohingya women, men, and children have been the victims of a widespread and systematic attack, amounting to crimes against humanity.”

“In this orchestrated campaign, Myanmar’s security forces have brutally meted out revenge on the entire Rohingya population of northern Rakhine State, in an apparent attempt to permanently drive them out of the country. These atrocities continue to fuel the region’s worst refugee crisis in decades,” said Tirana Hassan, Crisis Response Director at Amnesty.

“Exposing these heinous crimes is the first step on the long road to justice. Those responsible must be held to account,” she added, specifically calling for Myanmar’s commander-in-chief, senior general Min Aung Hlaing, to take immediate action to stop his troops from committing atrocities.

Oppressed for decades, the minority Muslim Rohingya were forced to escape after soldiers launched a massive counteroffensive across Rakhine state, a response to around 30 coordinated attacks by Rohingya militants on army outposts on 25 August.

Myanmar has blocked media and major United Nations aid agencies from operating freely in Rakhine and newly-released satellite images from Human Rights Watch show that at least 288 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire in northern Rakhine State.

Source: MENA