Rohingya insurgents reject Amnesty
report on Hindu villagers killed in
Myanmar
A Rohingya Muslim armed group denied on
Friday a report by human rights group
Amnesty International that its members had
killed scores of Hindu civilians last August,
amid a surge in violence in Myanmar's
troubled Rakhine State.
In its report, published this week, Amnesty
documented in detail atrocities it said had
been committed by the Arakan Rohingya
Salvation Army (ARSA) near a remote village
in Rakhine State.
The report, citing witnesses, including Hindu
women who said they were abducted by ARSA
insurgents, said fighters from the group killed
as many as 99 Hindus near Kha Maung Seik
after launching the raids on security posts on
August 25.
"We categorically deny all of these
unjustifiable and careless serious criminal
accusations mentioned in the said report,"
ARSA said in a statement signed by its leader
Ata Ullah and posted on social media network
Twitter late on Friday.
Myanmar's military response to the Rohingya
insurgent attacks have driven nearly 700,000
Rohingya Muslims to flee from northern
Rakhine to neighbouring Bangladesh, in what
the United Nations and aid agencies have
called "a textbook example of ethnic
cleansing".
Myanmar has rejected the accusations of
ethnic cleansing, as well as most of the
accounts of killings and rape recounted by
many of the refugees arriving in Bangladesh.
Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International's Crisis
Response Director, said the group "absolutely
stands by the findings" of its investigation and
urged Myanmar authorities to allow unfettered
access to northern Rakhine for UN and other
independent investigators.
by: bdnews24