Myanmar’s army has released a report denying all allegations of rape and killings by security forces, having days earlier replaced the general in charge of the operation that drove more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.



No reason was given for Maj Gen Maung Maung Soe being transferred from his post as the head of Western Command in Rakhine state, where Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, launched a sweeping counter-insurgency operation in August.

“I don’t know the reason why he was transferred,” Maj Gen Aye Lwin, deputy director of the psychological warfare and public relation department at the ministry of defence, told Reuters. “He wasn’t moved into any position at present. He has been put in reserve.”

A senior UN official, who had toured the refugee camps in Bangladesh, on Sunday accused Myanmar’s military of conducting organised mass rape and other crimes against humanity.

The Myanmar military said its own internal investigation had exonerated security forces of all accusations of atrocities. The investigators’ findings were posted on the Facebook page of the military’s commander-in-chief, Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing.

The developments came ahead of a visit on Wednesday by US secretary of state Rex Tillerson. He is expected to deliver a stern message to Myanmar’s generals, over whom national leader Aung San Suu Kyi has little control.

A spokeswoman for the US state department, Katina Adams, said the United States was aware of reports of the general’s replacement and added: “We remain gravely concerned by continuing reports of violence and human rights abuses committed by Burmese security forces and vigilantes. Those responsible for abuses must be held accountable.”

Lawmakers in Washington are pressing to pass legislation imposing economic and travel sanctions targeting the military and its business interests.

In an op-ed in the Guardian on Monday, Republican representative Steve Chabot and Democratic representative Joseph Crowley said it was time to “expeditiously” impose sanctions.

“The US needs to send a clear message that there is no excuse for a cruel, extensive and grossly disproportionate crackdown on civilians,” they said.

The government in mostly Buddhist Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, regards the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Leaders of Asian nations meeting in Manila on Monday skirted around the exodus of the Rohingya, disappointing human rights groups who were hoping for a tough stand.

Maung Maung Soe’s transfer was ordered on Friday and Brig Genl Soe Tint Naing, formerly a director in logistics, was appointed as the new head of Western Command.

Made up of three divisions, Western Command is overseen by the Bureau of Special Operations, which reports to the office of Min Aung Hlaing.

A senior UN official, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, has described the army’s actions in Rakhine as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar says the clearance operation was necessary for national security after Rohingya militants attacked 30 security posts and an army base in the state on 25 August. The internal investigation put the number of fighters involved in the attacks at over 10,000, more than doubling an earlier official estimate.

Speaking in Dhaka, Pramila Patten, the UN special representative of the secretary-eneral on sexual violence in conflict, said she would raise accusations against the Myanmar military with the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

“Sexual violence is being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar, otherwise known as the Tatmadaw,” Patten said following a three-day tour of the Rohingya refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh.

“Rape is an act and a weapon of genocide,” she said.

Refugees have accused Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist vigilantes of torching their villages, murdering their families and raping women.

Q&A Who are the Rohingya and what happened to them in Myanmar? Show Described as the world’s most persecuted people, 1.1 million Rohingya people live in Myanmar. They live predominately in Rakhine state, where they have co-existed uneasily alongside Buddhists for decades. Rohingya people say they are descendants of Muslims, perhaps Persian and Arab traders, who came to Myanmar generations ago. Unlike the Buddhist community, they speak a language similar to the Bengali dialect of Chittagong in Bangladesh. The Rohingya are reviled by many in Myanmar as illegal immigrants and suffer from systematic discrimination. The Myanmar government treats them as stateless people, denying them citizenship. Stringent restrictions have been placed on Rohingya people’s freedom of movement, access to medical assistance, education and other basic services. Violence broke out in northern Rakhine state in August 2017, when militants attacked government forces. In response, security forces supported by Buddhist militia launched a “clearance operation” that ultimately killed at least 1,000 people and forced more than 600,000 to flee their homes. The UN’s top human rights official said the military’s response was "clearly disproportionate” to insurgent attacks and warned that Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya minority appears to be a "textbook example” of ethnic cleansing. When Aung San Suu Kyi rose to power there were high hopes that the Nobel peace prize winner would help heal Myanmar's entrenched ethnic divides. But she has been accused of standing by while violence is committed against the Rohingya. In 2019, judges at the international criminal court authorised a full-scale investigation into the allegations of mass persecution and crimes against humanity. On 10 December 2019, the international court of justice in The Hague opened a case alleging genocide brought by the Gambia. Rebecca Ratcliffe Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/AAP

Patten said brutal acts of sexual violence had occurred in the context of collective persecution that included the killing of adults and children, torture, mutilation and the burning and looting of villages.

The Myanmar military’s internal probe said that according to 2,817 people interviewed from 54 Rohingya villages soldiers did not fire on “innocent villagers”, rape or commit sexual violence against women.

Nor were there any killings or beating of villagers, and the security forces did not carry out any looting or set fire to Rohingya mosques, it said.

The report also concluded that security forces only used small arms in clashes with Rohingya militants and there were no findings to suggest the use of “excessive force”.

It also blamed the militants for setting fire to the villages and frightening and coercing people to leave their homes.