Episode: KPN 07-08-2022
New evidence shows how Myanmar’s military planned the Rohingya purge – Part two In a private meeting with officials in Rakhine, which CIJA said was held around the time of […]
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New evidence shows how Myanmar’s military planned the Rohingya purge – Part Three
In February 2017, the military declared the operations over. But hostility towards the Rohingya continued.
In July 2017, a group met in private to discuss operations in Rakhine, one record shows. Those present included Maung Maung Soe, the head of the Western Command, which had overseen the previous year’s crackdown, and Thura San Lwin, the head of the Border Guard Police. There were also commanders from the Military Operation Command-15 division and several local administrators.
“In July 2017, a group met in private to discuss operations in Rakhine, one record shows. Those present included Maung Maung Soe, the head of the Western Command, which had overseen the previous year’s crackdown, and Thura San Lwin, the head of the Border Guard Police. There were also commanders from the Military Operation Command-15 division and several local administrators. The intelligence-gathering capabilities of the security forces in Muslim villages. A MOC-15 commander spoke about recruiting “kalars as spies and underlings” to obtain the latest news. “Kalar” is another racial slur for Muslims.”
Maung Maung Soe, the head of the Western Command
One senior official said that at least 50% of the Rohingya population supported terrorism. A senior member of the security forces said Muslim villages were providing “protection” to militants.
Maung Maung Soe expressed frustration about the intelligence-gathering capabilities of the security forces in Muslim villages. A MOC-15 commander spoke about recruiting “kalars as spies and underlings” to obtain the latest news. “Kalar” is another racial slur for Muslims.
In the end, the group agreed to send health workers to villages to gather “valuable information.” They also determined that the army’s actions needed to be concealed from the outside world.
Thura San Lwin and Maung Maung Soe didn’t respond to questions sent to the military junta.
At another meeting in August between a MOC-15 commander and local administrators, the commander complained there were too many Muslims living near a military detachment. The majority of “Bengali” villages had been “trained for terrorism,” the group concluded. They resolved to demolish their homes and mosques, according to one record.
Around this time, according to another record, national and state-level officials visited a group of ultranationalist Buddhist monks in northern Rakhine state, who told them “illegal migrant Bengalis” were killing ethnic people to occupy the region. One of the monks said action needed to be taken.
Thura San Lwin, the border guard police chief, told the monks that forces were deployed for patrols and would carry out “area clearance” in cooperation with the military, according to the document. He didn’t specify where the clearance would take place. The officials urged the monks and other locals to cooperate with the security forces and share information.
“Thura San Lwin, the border guard police chief, told the monks that forces were deployed for patrols and would carry out “area clearance” in cooperation with the military. He didn’t specify where the clearance would take place. The officials urged the monks and other locals to cooperate with the security forces and share information. By mid-August 2017, hundreds of troops had been flown into northern Rakhine, including two elite Light Infantry Divisions, the 33rd and 99th. The military said publicly it was trying to stabilize the situation there and that Muslim attackers had killed both Rakhine and Muslim villagers. Reuters couldn’t confirm this.”
According to the document.
By mid-August 2017, hundreds of troops had been flown into northern Rakhine, including two elite Light Infantry Divisions, the 33rd and 99th. The military said publicly it was trying to stabilize the situation there and that Muslim attackers had killed both Rakhine and Muslim villagers. Reuters couldn’t confirm this.
In the early hours of August 25, some 30 police posts were attacked by Rohingya men across the north of Rakhine state, killing 12 members of the security forces, authorities said. The men were largely untrained and carrying mostly sticks, knives and homemade bombs, according to the UN. A group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which said it was seeking political rights for Rohingya, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
ARSA didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Nay Myo Thet and another member of the security forces told Reuters they were surprised by the army’s disproportionate response to what they said were small and poorly organized attacks compared with insurgencies conducted by well-equipped militias in other parts of the country.
A log of army activities compiled by military authorities and obtained by CIJA records 18 attacks that morning by “Bengali insurgents,” starting with several explosions from handmade bombs. The log doesn’t record the deaths of any members of the security forces, though it does say militants killed Rohingya informers and several Rakhine civilians.
The next morning, the burning of Rohingya villages began. The log describes “arson attacks” in the Rakhine township of Maungdaw, with lists of houses, shops, mosques and Arabic language schools destroyed. Hundreds of houses are recorded as burned after “a fire broke out.” The arson continued for weeks. More than 7,000 structures are recorded in the log as having been burned to the ground between August 25 and mid-September. Sometimes the arson is ascribed to “Bengali insurgents.” Sometimes no perpetrator is listed.
Moe Yan Naing, a police captain who was stationed in Rakhine, told Reuters there were no attacks by ARSA after August 25, but his superiors ordered him and his colleagues to burn villages. There were many dead bodies in the villages, said Moe Yan Naing.
“The troops shot into the village before entering,” he said, referring to the village of Inn Din, where Reuters uncovered a massacre of civilians. “They shot and killed whoever they found in the village.”
“The troops shot into the village before entering, referring to the village of Inn Din, where Reuters uncovered a massacre of civilians. “They shot and killed whoever they found in the village. There were no attacks by ARSA after August 25, but his superiors ordered him and his colleagues to burn villages. There were many dead bodies in the villages.”
Moe Yan Naing, a police captain who was stationed in Rakhine
Moe Yan Naing was the police captain who testified in the 2018 trial of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were arrested after they uncovered the killings in Inn Din and spent 511 days behind bars. Moe Yan Naing undercut the official narrative in court, saying that the two reporters had been set up by the authorities. He fled the country after the coup, fearing arrest by junta forces.
Approximately 392 villages were either partly or completely destroyed, largely by fire, according to UN investigators, who blamed the arson on the Myanmar security forces and local Rakhine residents. This amounted to 40% of all villages in northern Rakhine state.
Army chief Min Aung Hlaing traveled to northern Rakhine around the time of the expulsion of the Rohingya, CIJA said. A CIJA document records previously unreported comments he made to officials in Rakhine during his trip. He ordered non-Rohingya locals to remain in their homes “instead of leaving,” referring to a large discrepancy in population size between Muslims and other ethnic groups in Rakhine. He told the audience he understood they “do not want to keep Bengali villages near.”
During the expulsion of the Rohingya, troops were given instructions to delete photos that might be incriminating, said Nay Myo Thet. He and Moe Yan Naing, the former police captain, said security force members placed machetes beside the bodies of dead Rohingya and took photographs so it would look like they were insurgents.
“During the expulsion of the Rohingya, troops were given instructions to delete photos that might be incriminating, security force members placed machetes beside the bodies of dead Rohingya and took photographs so it would look like they were insurgents. Sensitive orders from senior commanders were given by phone rather than in writing.”
Nay Myo Thet and Moe Yan Naing, the former police captain
Sensitive orders from senior commanders were given by phone rather than in writing, said Nay Myo Thet.
Documents in the CIJA cache show how the military feared international retribution over the Rakhine operation. A 2018 presentation that CIJA said was shown in officer training sessions assessed the possibility of foreign intervention triggered by an invocation of the UN’s “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine. R2P, as it’s known, has been used to support international intervention in countries where rulers are committing atrocities.
One of the documents in the CIJA cache deals with the likelihood of foreign intervention in Myanmar over the expulsion of the Rohingya. It is titled “The R2P (Responsibility to protect) and Myanmar’s politics”
If R2P come in Myanmar
The country will become a failed state
The document raises some points for discussion:
Difficulty to counter their (Rohingya) narratives and stories that appear on Google and social media due to their (the Rohingya’s) extensive financial and technology resources
Various developments: preparation by the EU for sanctions; a Myanmar representative was not allowed to join “The Berlin Conference on Myanmar Genocide”; the American ambassador based in Yangon stating that Myanmar’s security forces committed ethnic cleansing
Whether R2P could be triggered
Perspective of Myanmar political observers:
Despite pressure from the UN and international community on the military regarding the issues in northern Rakhine and demands on the Myanmar government to accept Bengali refugees, there is no likelihood of R2P being triggered and violating Myanmar’s sovereignty.
The government’s effort (to prevent R2P)
Negotiated with Bangladesh’s government multiple times to take back the displaced people
Acting on the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State led by Dr. Kofi Annan, humanitarian support and resettlement in Rakhine state, and implementation of development projects
Conclusion
Excessive pressure could harm the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country
The strategic game of the government: Give and take with China, prevention by diplomacy
The document also points to the actions of other states:
The United States: Anti-terrorism campaigns in the Middle East; blaming Myanmar for the Rakhine conflict to win support from the Muslim world
England: Left the EU in fear of accepting refugees
If R2P comes to Myanmar, the country will become “a failed state,” reads one slide. The presentation concluded that international uproar over the military operation was creating “excessive pressure” and that could “harm the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.”
A 2018 internal report by military authorities that assessed the Rakhine operation said the Rohingya had been “eager to take over” northern Rakhine. Muslim religious scholars in Myanmar, the report said, were trying to implement a plan for the world to become Islamic in the 21st century and were “recklessly” accelerating birth rates to increase the Muslim population. The authorities, it said, may have had trouble policing in Rakhine because “many Bengalis have similar facial resemblance with each other.”
The report points to democratic reforms in the country as having emboldened the Rohingya. Control over “extremist Bengalis” had weakened, the report said, when two Rohingya became members of parliament after power was transferred to a semi-civilian government following an election in 2010.
One of the two MPs, Shwe Maung, who had been critical of the authorities’ treatment of the Rohingya, has been in the United States since 2015 for fear of being arrested if he returns to Myanmar. His advocacy for the Rohingya in parliament had made him “a target,” he told Reuters.
Rohingya weren’t allowed to vote in the election that brought Suu Kyi to power in 2015, and Shwe Maung was barred from running.
Since the purge in Rakhine, some people named in the CIJA documents have been promoted. Among them is the former head of the 33rd Light Infantry Division, Aung Aung, who was promoted to head the Southwestern Command, according to local media. Border Guard Police chief Thura San Lwin was transferred to a top police post in the capital Naypyitaw, according to local reports.
Aung Aung didn’t respond to questions from Reuters.
A United Nations body also has been gathering evidence about the military’s actions in Rakhine, and since the coup has expanded its work to cover the junta’s actions. In March, the UN said the army’s actions since seizing power – including extrajudicial killings, air strikes and arson in populated areas – could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
CIJA wound down its Myanmar fact-finding operation in late April. Wiley said international criminal justice is a “long game,” but he believes CIJA has amassed “really good evidence.”
“We get convictions,” he added. “The challenge is arrests.”
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