Arakan News Agency
A 10-member European delegation arrived in western Arakan state, west of Myanmar, to verify the growing reports of “human rights violations” committed against the Rohingya Muslims during the recent military campaign in the state.
“A European delegation arrived in Arakan state with the aim of holding meetings with government authorities and representatives of political parties in the country,” said government spokesman Tin Maung Oo.
“The team, led by Colin Stenbach, head of the EU office in Yangon, arrived in Maungdaw, a border town with Bangladesh, for a three-day visit,” Maung Sue told Anadolu by telephone.
Some 20 local and foreign journalists will also visit Maungdaw after local authorities imposed a ban on journalists and human rights activists covering the events during the military campaign, state newspapers reported Friday.
On 3rd February, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report after conveying the testimonies of hundreds of Rohingya, including the methods of killing, torture and terror, against the members of the Muslim minority in Arakan.
The report addressed the latest wave of violence in the region, which has continued since last October.
Witnesses spoke of “horrific” practices, including various forms of murder, kidnapping, concealment and torture, rape and sexual assaults on women, the killing of children and infants and the stabbing of pregnant women.
The report described these practices as “amounted to be crimes against humanity and practices of ethnic cleansing”.
Arakan is one of Myanmar’s poorest regions and since 2012 has witnessed acts of violence between Buddhists and Muslims; hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.
The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya “illegal immigrants from Bangladesh” under a law passed in 1982, while the United Nations classifies them as “the most persecuted religious minority in the world”. –
