Rights watch: Punish Myanmar commanders for rape of Rohingya

YANGON: Human Rights Watch yesterday called for Myanmar to punish army and police

commanders if they allowed troops to rape and sexually assault women and girls of the Rohingya Muslim minority.

The New York-based campaign group said it had documented rape, gang rape and other sexual violence against girls as young as 13 in interviews with some of the 69,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh since Myanmar security forces responded to attacks on border posts four months ago.

“The sexual violence did not appear to be random or opportunistic, but part of a coordinated and systematic attack against Rohingya, in part because of their ethnicity and religion,” a Human Rights Watch ( HRW) news release said.

Reuters was unable to contact a Myanmar government spokesman to respond to the allegations.

An estimated 1.1 million Rohingya live in the western state of Rakhine, but have their movements and access to services restricted. Rohingyas are barred from citizenship in Myanmar, where many call them ‘Bengalis’ to suggest they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Independent journalists and observers have been barred from visiting the army’s operation zone in northern Rakhine since the Oct 9 attacks that killed nine border police.

The government has so far dismissed most claims that soldiers raped, beat, killed and arbitrarily detained civilians while burning down villages, insisting instead that a lawful operation is underway against a group of armed Rohingya insurgents.

The HRW report comes just days after United Nations investigators said Myanmar’s security forces had ‘ very likely’ committed crimes against humanity, posing a dilemma for de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner took charge of most civilian affairs in April after a historic transition from full military rule, but soldiers retain a quarter of seats in parliament and control ministries related to security.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said on Friday that Suu Kyi had promised to investigate the UN’s allegations.