Investigate ‘army beating’ video, Myanmar urged

YANGON: Myanmar authorities must investigate a video showing men in military uniforms viciously beating handcuffed detainees suspected of being ethnic rebel fighters, rights groups said yesterday.

The video’s emergence comes as negotiators from the civilian-led government of Aung San Suu Kyi and the military hold peace talks with more than a dozen ethnic rebel groups in the capital, aimed at ending some of the world’s longest running civil wars.

The unverified video first surfaced on Facebook on Saturday morning and quickly went viral.

It showed several men dressed in army uniform kicking three handcuffed men in civilian clothes, part of a wider group of people detained outside some rural houses. At one point in the 17-minute long video, a uniformed man smashes his helmet into the face of one of the victims.

The uniformed men can be heard asking the handcuffed detainees whether they belong to the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic rebel group from the northeastern state of Shan currently fighting the military.

Rights groups called on Myanmar’s government to investigate whether troops were responsible.

“The Myanmar authorities should immediately investigate this footage, and with urgency the authority should determine the well-being and whereabouts of the men detained in the footage,” said Matthew Smith from Fortify Rights.

Myanmar’s border regions have burned for decades with insurgencies led by ethnic minority militias.

Suu Kyi has made signing a nationwide peace deal a priority of her government with the latest round of peace talks currently underway in Naypyidaw. But the peace process has had limited success so far. Under the junta-era constitution, Suu Kyi has little control over the military and fighting between the army and ethnic rebels is currently at its most ferocious in years. – AFP