Myanmar said on Monday it has detained several police officers over a video shot by a fellow policeman that shows them beating Rohingya civilians, a rare admission of abuse against the Muslim minority.
Tens of thousands of people from the persecuted ethnic group — loathed by many of Myanmar’s Buddhist majority — have fled a military operation in Rakhine State, launched after attacks on police posts in October.
Dozens of videos have emerged apparently showing abuses against Rohingya, but this is the first time the government has said it will take action over them.
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The refugees’ stories have raised global alarm and galvanised protests against Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused of not doing enough to help the Rohingya.
On Monday authorities pledged to take action “against police who allegedly beat villagers during area clearance operations on 5 November in Kotankauk village”. Ms. Suu Kyi’s office named four officers involved in the operation including constable Zaw Myo Htike, who looks nonchalantly into the camera smoking as he records the video. The footage shows police hitting a young boy around the head as he walks to where dozens of villagers are lined up in rows seated on the ground, hands behind their heads.
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Footage shows abuse
Three officers in uniform then start attacking one of the sitting men, beating him with a stick and kicking him repeatedly in the face. A Rohingya activist contacted by AFP said the footage had been verified by a refugee from the nearby camp, Shilkhali.
Around 600 people have been detained since the start of the military operation, according to state media, including six who died in police custody in largely unexplained circumstances.
More than 120,000 have been trapped in squalid displacement camps since violence erupted in 2012 in Rakhine State, where they are denied citizenship, access to health care and education. — AFP