ROHINGYA MUSLIM INSURGENTS SAID 10 ROHINGYA FOUND IN A MASS GRAVE WERE 'INNOCENT CIVILIANS'
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), whose raids against security posts starting last August sparked sweeping military operations in the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine, said it “whole-heartedly welcomes the admission” of “war crimes” by the “Burmese terrorist army”.
“We hereby declare
that these ten innocent Rohingya civilians found in the said mass grave in Inn
Din Village Tract were neither ARSA nor had any association with ARSA”, the
group said in a statement on Twitter.
PRESS STATEMENT [13/01/2018]:— ARSA_The Army (@ARSA_Official) January 12, 2018
-Inn Din Mass Grave in # Moungdaw
-The Terrorist #Burmese Army had recently admitted its heinous crime first time ever in the history pic.twitter.com/1Wo1H0sd8e
A Myanmar government
spokesman said in response to ARSA’s statement that sometimes” terrorists and
villagers were allied “ in attacks” against security forces.
“We have already
said it is very difficult to segregate who is a terrorist and who are innocent
villagers,” spokesman Zaw Htay said. “There will be an ongoing investigating
process whether they are members of ARSA or not.”
The Myanmar military
did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Myanmar’s military
said earlier this week its soldiers had killed 10 captured Muslim “terrorists”
during insurgent attacks at the beginning of September, after Buddhist
villagers had forced the captured men into a grave the villagers had dug.
It was a rareacknowledgment of wrongdoing by the Myanmar military during its operations in
the western state of Rakhine.
‘NEW STEP’
Myanmar’s civilian
leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Friday it was “positive” that the country’s
military was taking responsibility for the actions of troops.
“It is a new step
for our country,” she told a joint news conference with Japanese Foreign
Minister Taro Kono in Myanmar’s capital of Naypyitaw.
“I see it that way
because a country needs to take responsibility for the rule of law in the
country, and this is the first step on the road of taking responsibility and it
is a positive thing,” She said, according to a transcript of the news
conference posted on her Facebook page.
On Dec. 18, the
military announced a mass grave containing 10 bodies had been found at the
coastal village of Inn Din, about 50 km (30 miles) north of the state capital
Sittwe. The army appointed a senior officer to investigate.
A statement from the
military on Wednesday said its investigation had found that members of the
security forces had taken part in the killings and action would be taken
against them.
Some civilians
wanted to kill the 10 men to avenge the death of an ethnic Rakhine Buddhist man
in Inn Dinn village named Maung Ni and would face punishment, the military
said.
On Saturday, a
lawyer for one of Maung Ni’s sons said police were seeking murder charges
against the son, named Tun Aye,
for taking part in
the killings. Lawyer Khin Win said a murder complaint against the son was filed
with local prosecutors last week in Maungdaw, the nearest town to Inn Din.
Tun Aye was one of
four Inn Din villagers detained by police on Dec. 15, said Khin Win. The other
three had been released, he said.
National police
spokesman Thet Naing said he was not aware of the murder complaint.
The Rohingya crisis erupted after Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts on Aug. 25 in
Rakhine triggered a fierce military response that the United Nations denounced
as ethnic cleansing.
Myanmar denies
ethnic cleansing, saying its security forces had mounted legitimate
counter-insurgency clearance operations.
SOURCE: REUTERS
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