Myanmar commission plays down abuse against Rohingya

YANGON

A commission probing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state on Jan. 4 denied security forces have carried out a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya, days after a video emerged showing police beating civilians from the Muslim minority.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya - a group loathed by many among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority - have fled a military operation in the northwestern state, launched after deadly attacks on police posts in October last year.

Dozens have died in the crackdown, while escapees now in neighboring Bangladesh have claimed they suffered rape, arson, murder and torture at the hands of police or soldiers.

Myanmar’s government, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has said the allegations are invented and has resisted mounting international pressure to protect the minority.

A state-appointed commission set up to investigate the violence released its interim report on Jan. 4, dismissing claims troops and police have embarked on a campaign to force the Rohingya out of the country.

Its interim findings come days after the government detained multiple police officers over a video showing policemen beating and kicking Rohingya villagers.

The footage, shot by one of officers, has sparked outrage and undermined the government’s blanket denials that soldiers and police have carried out rights abuses.

The size of the “Bengali” population, mosques and religious buildings in the unrest-hit area “are proof that there were no cases of genocide and religious persecution,” it said in a statement carried in state media.

Myanmar refuses to recognize the Rohingya as one of the country’s ethnic minorities, instead describing them as Bengalis - or illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh - even though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.

The commission also found “insufficient evidence” of rape but added it was still looking into claims security forces committed arson, illegal arrests and torture of the Rohingya.