Video confessions of private Myo Win Tun and private Zw Naing Tun were filmed in July by the Arikan Army, a rebel group currently fighting Myanmar’s military, and released by the non-governmental organization Fortify Rights, which says it has analyzed Fu. And it turned out to be reliable.
“We have destroyed the Muslim villages near Talang Bazar village. We carried out clearance operations at night as per the order to shoot everything you see and hear.” “We have buried a total of 30 bodies in one grave,” Myo Win Tune said in a video statement.
CNN could not independently confirm the accuracy of the video. It is unclear whether the individuals, after capture, confessed to the video under strictures, or if they would surrender as a destroyer.
Both soldiers are now believed to be in The Hague in the International Criminal Court, where an investigation into the Rohingya crisis is under way.
“This is a memorable moment in the ongoing struggle for justice for the Rohingya and the people of Myanmar,” Fischer Matthew Smith, chief executive officer of Fortify Rights, said in a statement.
CNN has reached out to the Myanmar government and the Arkan Army to comment on videos and admissions made by the two soldiers.
It maintains that “clearance operations” by the military in Rakhine were legitimate counter-terrorism measures launched in response to the Rohingya attack on a border post in which nine police officers were killed. Myanmar has denied the allegations.
Despite the fact that Myanmar considers one lakh or more Rohingyas as illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh, many Rohingya families have remained in the Rakhine state since the pennies.
Rape admission
In two videos released by Fortify Rights, filmed against a black-green plastic sheet, both uniformed men described in fact how they were ordered to kill all Rohingya villagers.
Myo Win Tune said he was sent on a night raid in a Muslim village in Buthidang township in But Gust 2017, where officials told him the Rohingya would “kill everyone” for “the race will be over”.
After destroying the first village, the soldier said his 10 unit was then stationed in the area for two weeks, raiding other nearby settlements. “We buried a total of 30 bodies in one grave … eight women, seven children, 15 men and the elderly,” Mayo Win Tune said in the video.
He said the women were raped by his unit before being shot and one woman confessed to raping herself. “We shot and buried people from village to village. It would be about 60 to 70 people,” Myo Win Tune said.
In Zhou Naing Tun’s video, he confesses to working with the 353rd Light Infantry Battalion to destroy “about 20 Muslim villages.” He said in the video, “We shot and destroyed them, according to the order to kill everyone, regardless of the children and adults.”
Zhou Naing Tun said they had buried about Muslim0 Muslim villagers in mass graves, found them after stealing money, gold and mobile phones from their shops and houses and killing them. He also said he was standing at the clock when his superiors raped the women.
International Criminal Court
Following the shooting of the alleged confession, the two soldiers appeared on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in August.
Fortify Rights said it believes the two soldiers from the video are now in the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Dutch city of The Hague, possibly to be used in a future case against Myanmar for their testimony. Government.
“These individuals may be Myanmar’s first offenders in the ICC and internal witnesses before being handed over to the court. We expect urgent action,” CEO Smith said in a statement.
The ICC will not confirm to CNN that Zhou Naing Tun and Myo Win Tun are in custody.
“The ICC investigation is a secret. All I can confirm is that two individuals appeared at a Bangladeshi border post, confessing to the mass murder and rape of Rohingya nationals during the 2017 sanction proceedings in Rakhine State,” said the international legal adviser to Bangladesh. And a former UN lawyer.
“They claimed to be members of the Myanmar army during that period and to have complied with the orders of senior military commanders. Bangladesh informed the International Criminal Court in accordance with its obligations … I am not able to confirm their identity or their location,” he said. Said.
Another Rohingya inside the Rakhine state, who called for the use of the nickname Edin Hussein to avoid future persecution, said the video was a major development that made people “very happy.”
“We have no words for how happy we are that both the former armies will be in the ICJ (by the Myanmar army) to confess to all the atrocities committed against the Rohingya,” he said.
“Our people could not gather much evidence because they were shooting us in the face and most of us had to flee and save lives rather than face guns … in the end we hope to be punished for the crime of genocide. Will get. “
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