Myanmar military form investigative body to look into 2017 ARSA attacks

Myanmar’s military hasn’t given much credence to date to investigations by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and the UN that have dubbed their actions in Rakhine state “ethnic cleansing,” so they’ve helpfully launched their own probe — of the investigations.

The Office of the Commander-In-Chief of Defense Services announced today that they will form a three-man military investigative court to look into the August 2017 ARSA attacks on Myanmar security checkpoints — one that will pointedly not examine the brutal military response to those attacks, which has driven more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighboring Bangladesh.

The court, formed by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s office, is charged with “scrutinizing and [verifying] incidents related to terror attacks of extremist Bengali terrorists which occured in Buthidaung-Maungdaw region” of Rakhine State in August 2017.

Another key purpose of the investigative body though is to “further scrutinize and [verify] the respective reports” by rights groups that have described the military’s campaign against civilians as “crimes against humanity.”

Reached in email today, Phil Robertson, deputy director of HRW’s Asia division, told Coconuts Yangon that the creation of the new court was ultimately just a distraction meant to avoid taking meaningful steps towards holding the military responsible for the alleged atrocities.

“The sole reason for the existence of this Tatmadaw committee is to help bolster Myanmar’s cover up of atrocities in Rakhine state,” Robertson said.

“Creating this new committee is just another bogus game to buy more time from the UN and the international community by pretending that there is an ongoing investigation being conducted. Nothing could be further from the truth, and no one is gullible enough to buy this lame excuse anymore.”

Earlier this month, a team from the International Criminal Court (ICC) visited Bangladesh during a preliminary probe into alleged atrocities committed against the Rohingya. Shortly afterwards, an ICC official said that individuals “responsible” for the atrocities will be held responsible for their crimes.

Those comments come amid widespread international condemnation over the persecution of the minority Rohingya and a remarkable fall from grace for the country’s de facto leader, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has gone from global human rights icon to international pariah for her stance on the issue.