Myanmar military vows to get tough on sexual assault

MYANMAR’S military has assured the United Nations of harsh action against perpetrators of sexual violence, state media reported yesterday, as UN envoys travelled to Rakhine State where the military conducted a widely criticised crackdown.

UN and rights groups say nearly 700 000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh after a military crackdown launched in the restive state in August that the United Nations denounced as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.

Many of the arriving refugees recounted incidents of killings, arson and rape but Myanmar largely rejected those reports as well as the accusation of ethnic cleansing.

The government said its forces were engaged in a legitimate security campaign in response to a string of Rohingya insurgent attacks on the security forces.

“Sexual violence [is] considered as despicable acts,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper cited military Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing as telling the envoys.

The military was taking harsh and stronger actions against such offenders, he said.

The UN Security Council envoys travelled by Myanmar military helicopters to northern Rakhine yesterday, the final day of their fourday visit to the region, flying over burnt and bulldozed villages visible from the air.

The envoys arrived in Myanmar on Monday after visiting refugee camps on the Bangladesh side of the border and government leaders in Dhaka.

In Myanmar, they met separately with government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing.

British UN Ambassador Karen Pierce said that during Monday’s meeting Min Aung Hlaing was very forthcoming on the issue of sexual assaults in Rakhine, adding that the military chief said such offences were not tolerated.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, in her nearly hour-long meeting with the envoys, pledged to investigate any credible accusations of abuse, diplomats who attended said.

Suu Kyi noted Myanmar’s difficulties in transitioning to the rule of law after decades of military dictatorship, the diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

“She said what was alleged to have happened to some of the Rohingya villagers was not acceptable and that if evidence were available it should be reported to the Burmese authorities and they would investigate,” Pierce said.

“What we’ve got to do on the council is think how best to turn that into something operational so that the evidence gets collected and given either to the Burmese authorities or to some sort of international mechanism.”