Myanmar soldiers sentenced for killing of Rohingya Muslims
April 10, 2018
Myanmar's army has sentenced seven soldiers to 10 years hard labor for the killing of 10 Rohingya people during last year's military assault. The International Criminal Court is seeking jurisdiction over deportations.
According to a statement by a Myanmar military chief, the seven soldiers, among them four officers, were sentenced under Section 71 of the country's military act as the Rohingya victims "were not arrested and punished according to procedures."
Myanmar's government admitted in January that troops, along with Buddhist villagers in Rakhine state, killed 10 Rohingya Muslim men in the village of Inn Dinn back in September.
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The incident came as part of the Myanmar military's brutal crackdown against the country's Muslim minority, which sent almost 700,000 Rohingya people fleeing across the border into neighboring Bangladesh.
Rights groups, however, maintain that the 10 deaths are just the tip of the iceberg of alleged murders, rapes and arson attacks carried out by Myanmar security forces. The UN has labelled the crackdown on the Rohingya as "ethnic cleansing." However, the Inn Dinn incident is the only atrocity the military has admitted so far.
Myanmar journalists remain held for Inn Dinn investigation
Despite the Myanmar military's admission over the bloody Inn Dinn incident, two Myanmar Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, remain in custody for possessing confidential documentation related to the massacre.
The report is believed to describe how troops and Buddhist villagers killed the 10 Rohingya men before dumping their bodies in a mass grave. It also included photos of the victims, hands bounds and kneeling on the floor before being executed, as well as of their bodies afterwards.
The arrest of the journalists has provoked a global outcry. The sentencing of the soldiers, however, could see the court rule on their defense lawyer's request to throw out the prosecution's case as early as Wednesday.
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War crimes prosecutors seeks jurisdiction for Rohingya deportations
The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague late on Monday asked judges whether she could launch a probe into the mass deportations of Rohingya people from Myanmar into Bangladesh.
ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda contended that "consistent and credible reports ... indicate that since August 2017 more than 670,000 Rohingya, lawfully present in Myanmar, have been intentionally deported across the international border into Bangladesh."
Opening a preliminary enquiry into the plight of the Rohingya communities could prove a complicated task for the ICC, since Myanmar is not a member of the international court and is unlikely to co-operate.
Bangladesh, however, is a member of the court, and, given the cross-border nature of the issue, Bensouda argued that a ruling in favor of ICC jurisdiction would be in line with its legal principles.
"This is not an abstract question, but a concrete one, affecting whether the Court may exercise jurisdiction ... to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute," she said in her filing.
Rohingya children: Raped, kidnapped, orphaned
The plight of the Rohingya Muslims forced to flee the atrocities committed by militants and the army in Myanmar is hard to stomach. The most vulnerable are children, as John Owens' photo series shows.
Image: DW/J. Owens
Shot and stabbed
Since August, more than 600,000 Rohingya have fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh. "The day the military came, they burnt down the village and shot my mother as she was trying to escape. My father couldn’t walk, so they stabbed him. I saw this with my own eyes," says 10-year-old Mohammed Belal who managed to run away from his village.
Image: DW/J. Owens
Haunted by the trauma
Mohammed’s sister Nur also watched the slaughter. She and her brother now live in a shelter for unaccompanied children in Bangladesh. She can play there and gets regular meals, a stark contrast to her journey from Myanmar where she and her brother nearly starved. But she is still haunted by the trauma of the recent weeks. "I miss my parents, my home, my country," she says.
Image: DW/J. Owens
Deep-rooted conflict
The conflict, which has been going on for 70 years and is rooted in the post-World War II social organization of the country, has claimed more than 2,000 victims since 2016, including the mother of 12-year-old Rahman, above. "They set fire to my home, and my mother was ill, so she could not leave," he says.
Image: DW/J. Owens
Save the children
Dilu-Aara, 5, came to the camp with her sister Rojina after she witnessed her parents being murdered by the military. "I was crying all the time and the bullets were flying over our heads. I escaped somehow." The international aid agency Save the Children is helping minors who come to Kutupalong without parents. Children make up to 60 percent of all Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Image: DW/J. Owens
Hunted like animals
Jaded Alam is among the hundreds of kids who came to Kutupalong without parents. Fortunately, his aunt cares for him — and very well, he admits. Jaded grew up in a village called Mandi Para where he used to love playing football, but everything changed when the military attacked. "They told us to leave our home. When I was running with my parents, they shot them. They died on the spot," he says.
Image: DW/J. Owens
Child abductions
Not all families have been separated during their plight, however. Rahman Ali has been scouring the refugee camp for weeks now after his 10-year-old son Zifad disappeared. Rumors of child abductions have swirled around the camp for years, and Rahman fears his son has fallen prey to human traffickers. "I can't eat, I can’t sleep. I’m so upset! It’s like I’ve gone mad."
Image: DW/J. Owens
"My mind is not normal"
When the shooting started, Sokina Khatun did all she could to protect her children — but she couldn't save Yasmine,15, and Jamalita, 20, who were in a neighboring village at the time. "Their throats were cut in front of their grandparents," she says. "I was numb, I couldn’t feel the pain. Right now my mind is not normal," she says. She managed to rescue nine of her offspring.
Image: DW/J. Owens
Attacked, raped and robbed
Yasmine thinks she might be 15 but looks considerably younger. In her village, she used to play with marbles and run in the nearby fields, but different memories haunt her now: The attack by Myanmar forces, the beating and murder of her beloved father and brothers, and the rape by a group of Burmese soldiers who also robbed her. "I felt lots of pain in my body," she says.
