[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 he stopped to describe the repression as genocide or crimes against humanity.
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. The sexual violence and rape perpetrated by the Myanmar army against Rohingya women has often occurred 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 took stock of thousands of victims of the crackdown that was unleashed by Rohingya Muslim insurgency attacks against security forces in Rakhine State in August 2017.
The results of the US investigation were published nearly a month after a team of UN investigators issued its own report accusing the Myanmar army. to act with "genocidal intent" and demanding that the country's commander-in-chief and five generals be prosecuted for orchestrating the most serious crimes under international law.
Report by Matt Spetalnick and Jason Szep; Edited by Alistair Bell
