Myanmar to charge officials filmed beating Rohingya

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar (AA) - Myanmar says it will charge security forces identified beating Rohingya men in a video clip filmed during a search operation in a village in western Rakhine State.

The video offers the first visual evidence of a litany of abuses -- including rape and torture -- human rights groups have claimed have taken place against the long-persecuted Muslim minority in recent months.

The clip -- filmed by a Myanmar policeman, which has gone viral on social media -- shows a large group of Rohingya -- including boys -- forced to sit on the ground with their hands on their heads as they are beaten and kicked by police.

On Monday, the president's office issued a statement via state media saying that the video was filmed during a search operation in Koe Tan Kauk village in Maungdaw district Nov. 5 -- two days after a United Nations-led 10-member delegation visited the area.

Maungdaw has been under strict military control since Oct. 9 when a gang killed nine border police officials in an area close to Myanmar's western border with Bangladesh.

In the subsequent clampdown, aid agencies and independent journalists were denied access to majority Rohingya areas, and at least 96 people -- 17 police and soldiers, three Muslim men working closely with the local authority, and 76 alleged "attackers" (including six who reportedly died during interrogation) -- were killed and around 600 suspects detained for alleged involvement.

Rohingya advocacy groups, however, claim around 400 Rohingya -- described by the United Nations as among the most persecuted groups worldwide -- were killed in the military operations, women were raped and Rohingya villages torched.