New York - International rights groups on Thursday accused
Myanmar's army of widespread rape and other abuses of women and girls
in Rakhine state, from where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya
Muslims have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.
Save the Children said interviews with Rohingya refugees in
Bangladesh, 60 per cent of who are children, painted "a disturbing
picture of the systematic violence, rape and forced evictions" faced
by many of them.
"They hit me in the face with a gun, kicked me in my chest and
stamped on my arms and legs," it quoted a 16-year-old Rohingya girl
as saying in Bangladesh's south-eastern district of Cox's Bazar.
"Then I was raped by three soldiers," the girl said. "They raped me
for about two hours and at some stage I fainted."
An estimated 617 000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh after the army
launched a crackdown on suspected Muslim insurgents blamed for
attacks on security posts in Myanmar's restive Rakhine state on
August 25.
Save the Children's report, "Horrors I Will Never Forget," includes
interviews with other women and children who witnessed atrocities by
soldiers against members of the minority group.
It urged Myanmar's government to investigate the abuses ahead of a
scheduled meeting of foreign ministers from Asia and Europe in
Naypyidaw next week.
The military has staunchly denied that its troops have committed any
human rights abuses, including in an investigation report released
Monday.
The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) also published a report based
on interviews with 52 Rohingya women and girls who had fled to
Bangladesh, including 29 who reported being raped by soldiers.
Hala Sadak, a 15-year-old refugee, said soldiers stripped her naked
and then dragged her from her home to a nearby tree where, she
estimates, about 10 men raped her.
All but one of the rapes reported to HRW were gangrapes, and all of
the women said the perpetrators were uniformed men working for
Myanmar's security forces.
Rights groups have identified specific branches of the military
through descriptions of their uniforms, said Richard Weir, HRW's
Myanmar researcher, at a press briefing in New York.
The women also described soldiers bashing the heads of their young
children against trees, throwing children and elderly parents into
burning houses, and shooting their husbands.
HRW's Nisha Varia said women told the group that the perpetrators
slapped them, bit their breasts, laughed at them and put guns to
their heads during the attacks.
Varia called the military's denial of allegations of mass rape,
beatings, extra-judicial killings or destruction of property
"outrageous and shameful."
The United Nations has described the actions of Myanmar's military
against the Rohingya as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing."
HRW has called for the UN Security Council to impose a full arms
embargo on Myanmar as well as individual sanctions against military
leaders responsible for rights violations.
However, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson advised against sweeping
sanctions against Myanmar when he visited the country on Wednesday,
and said targeted sanctions on invididuals may be appropriate "if we
have credible, reliable information."