[ad_1]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An investigation by the US government has revealed that the Myanmar army has carried out a planned and coordinated campaign of mass killings, gang rapes and other atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim minority in that Asian country. South East.
FILE PHOTO: A soldier from Myanmar patrols in a boat on the Mayu River near Buthidaung, in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar September 13, 2017. REUTERS / Stringer
The State Department report, reviewed by Reuters before its scheduled release on Monday, could be used to justify other US sanctions or other punitive measures against Myanmar authorities, US officials said. .
But she failed to describe the repression as genocide or a crime against humanity, an issue that other US officials believe has been the subject of intense internal debate that has delayed the deployment of report for almost a month.
The results were obtained through more than 1,000 interviews with Rohingya men and women in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh, where nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled a military campaign in Rakhine State.
"The study reveals that the recent violence in northern Rakhine State was extreme, large-scale, widespread and appeared to be aimed at terrorizing the population and driving out Rohingya residents," according to the 20-page report. "The scope and scale of military operations indicates that they have been well planned and coordinated."
The survivors described in detail what they had witnessed, including soldiers killing infants and young children, firing on unarmed men and victims buried alive or thrown into mass graves. They described the sexual violence and rape perpetrated by the Rohingya women's army in Myanmar, often in public.
One witness described four Rohingya girls who were abducted, tied up with ropes and raped for three days. They were heavily bleeding and "half dead," he added.
Human rights groups and Rohingya activists have made thousands of victims of repression triggered by attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents against security forces in Rakhine State in August 2017.
U.N. REPORT FOUND 'GENOCIDAL INTENT'
The results of the US investigation were published nearly a month after US investigators published their own report accusing the Myanmar military of acting with "genocidal intent" and demanding that the country's commander-in-chief and five be pursued in international law.
The Buddhist-dominated Myanmar army, also known as Burma, has denied accusations of ethnic cleansing and says its actions are part of a fight against terrorism.
A senior State Department official said the purpose of the US investigation was not to determine genocide but to document atrocities to guide future policies to hold perpetrators accountable.
The official, on condition of anonymity, said that it would be up to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to decide whether such a designation should be made in the future and did not rule out the possibility.
A declaration of genocide by the US government, which has already described the crackdown as "ethnic cleansing", could have legal implications by committing Washington to harsher punitive measures against Myanmar.
The US report accused the Myanmar army of targeting Rohingya civilians "indiscriminately and with extreme brutality".
"The stories of some refugees show a pattern of planning and pre-meditation," he said, citing confiscation before knives and other tools that can be used as weapons.
According to the report, about 80 per cent of the refugees surveyed reported witnessing a murder, most often by soldiers or police officers, and usually by shooting or stabbing.
Some victims have been mutilated or tortured. "The reports of mutilation include cutting and spreading bowels, limbs or cut hands / feet, removing nails or burning beards and genitals to force confessions or burning burns."
In a few cases, witnesses said the Rohingyas were killed in pits that were bulldozed by the army or buried alive.
The State Department's investigation was inspired by a US forensic examination of atrocities committed in the Darfur region of Sudan in 2004, culminating in a US genocide declaration that resulted in economic sanctions against the Sudanese government. .
The Trump administration, which has been criticized by human rights groups and by some US lawmakers for reacting prudently in Myanmar, could now face increased pressure to take a firmer stance.
US concerns over complicating relations between Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, with the powerful Armed Forces and the rapprochement of Myanmar with China, the main regional rival of Washington, could, however, be mitigated.
On August 17, the US government imposed sanctions on four military and police commanders and two army units, but Myanmar military chief Min Aung Hlaing was spared. New US sanctions have been considered, US officials said.
There seems to be little appetite from the United States, however, to reimpose the broad economic sanctions lifted by former President Barack Obama as the country moved from decades of direct military rule to a democratic transition.
The Rohingya, who consider themselves to be from Rakhine State, are widely regarded as intruders by the Buddhist majority in Myanmar and denied citizenship.
Report by Matt Spetalnick and Jason Szep; Edited by Alistair Bell
