Myanmar soldiers admit to killing Rohingya people and burying their bodies in mass graves, following the orders of the armies.
Myanmar soldiers have admitted that they were ordered to kill all Rohingyas, be it men, women, or children, before burying their dead bodies in mass graves. This has come to the fore after a video released by Rebel Militia showed two Myanmar soldiers talking about the killings and how they are ordered to kill all, irrespective of them being adults or children.
Soldiers admitting to the massacre
Sky News reported that this is the first time the soldiers have spoken about the Rohingyas crimes publicly, which includes rape and murder. They have also admitted that the orders were given by the Army to exterminate all Rohingyas, a Muslim minority.
As a result of such killings and heinous crimes done to the Rohingyas, approximately 730,000 have fled Myanmar and gone to Bangladesh.
Pvt Myo Win Tun, a soldier in the 565th light infantry battalion, admitted to carrying out orders to “shoot all that you can see and all that you hear” before dumping 30 bodies near a cell phone tower. He also stated that the soldiers, corporals, and sergeants used to rape the women before killing them and that he also raped a woman one time.
He said the same colonel who gave his unit the original orders, Col Than Htike, told the troops “to exterminate all” Rohingyas. The men were told to be shot on the foreheads and then thrown into graves.
Another soldier in the video, Pvt Zaw Naing Tun of the 353rd Light Infantry Battalion, stated that they wiped out around 20 villages in Maungdaw Township, including Doe Tan, Ngan Chaung, Kyet Yoe Pyin, Zin Paing Nyar, and U Shey Kya.
He further mentioned that he had seen other soldiers raping women and admitting that he abducted ten unarmed Rohingyas, tied them up with ropes, and killed them before dumping their bodies in the mass graves.
What the human rights group has to say
Matthew Smith, chief executive of Fortify Rights, a human rights group, told NBC News, “This is the first time that Myanmar soldiers are coming forward in this way. This is the crack in the armor of impunity in the history of the Myanmar army’s campaign against the Rohingya and other ethnic nationalities.”
The two soldiers in the video fled the country and were sent to the Hague, where the International Criminal Court is located.
Image courtesy of Sk Hasan Ali/Shutterstock