Army admission of killings Rohingya ‘positive step’

YANGON: Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has welcomed an unprecedented army admission that security forces carried out extra-judicial killings of Rohingya Muslims as a “positive step,” statebacked media reported on Saturday.

After months of staunch denials of abuse, the army on Wednesday said a probe found four members of the security forces helped kill 10 Rohingya Muslims at Inn Din village on Sept.2, leaving their bodies in a hastily dug pit.

SOME 655,000 ROHINGYA HAVE LED western Rakhine state to Bangladesh since August, carrying with them consistent accounts of atrocities by Myanmar’s army.

Rights groups have accused Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi of failing to condemn the widespread abuses during the army crackdown, which followed raids by militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

After meeting the Japanese foreign minister on Friday Suu Kyi raised the army’s admission of involvement in the Inn Din killings as a “new step taken by our country.”

“In the end, rule of law in the country is the responsibility of that country. It is a positive indication that we are taking the steps to be responsible,” she added, according to a report carried by the Global New Light of Myanmar.

“It is a new step for our country,” she said, according to a transcript posted on her Facebook page. “I see it that way because a country needs to take responsibility for the rule of law IN THE COUNTRY, AND THIS IS THE IRST STEP on the road of taking responsibility and it is a positive thing.”

Suu Kyi rarely speaks to the media and has said little in public about the crisis in the western state. The army, which is not under the control of the civilian government, launched a sweeping counteroffensive in northern Rakhine in response to Rohingya militant attacks on Aug. 25, triggering an exodus of more than 650,000 Rohingya villagers to Bangladesh.

Asked if the revelations about the killing at the village of Inn Din, about 50 km (30 miles) north of the state capital Sittwe, could be a concern for refugees who are being asked to return, Suu Kyi said: “Some people might be afraid, but this is not something that has happened right now.

“It was an investigation into a case that happened before. So doing this investigation is a deterrent so that similar cases don’t happen later.”