YANGON, Feb 22 – Myanmar’s army-controlled home ministry is investigating a cover-up by the border force of the deaths in custody of two Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state, according to a police report reviewed by Reuters and interviews with senior security officials.
The internal document is the first official admission of serious wrongdoing by security forces in their crackdown against insurgents in Myanmar that has sent more than 70,000 fleeing across the border to Bangladesh. The home ministry, headed by a general, oversees the national police force, which includes the Border Guard Police (BGP).
The undated document reviewed by Reuters, titled “A cover-up of two deaths by Border Guard Police”, was compiled by a BGP unit in northern Rakhine and focuses on two men who were arrested on Oct 18 and questioned on suspicion of aiding insurgents. The men died in custody, the document says, without specifying a cause of death.
Instead of reporting the deaths, it says BGP officers in the village of Nga Khu Ya, in Maungdaw township, recorded that they had been transferred, with eight others, to another police detention centre. Maungdaw BGP chief Thura San Lwin said the document outlining the findings of the investigation had been submitted to police headquarters in the capital Naypyitaw.
“We are taking actions to punish those who lied in their reports. We won’t forgive them. We are also taking actions to punish those who did not follow the rule of law.” He said two other incidents of BGP officers on the ground “not telling the truth” in reports on the security crackdown were also being investigated by the home ministry. He declined to provide further details about the nature of those other two incidents, or about the probe into the Nga Khu Ya case.
Contradicting the local commander, Home Ministry spokesman Police Colonel Myo Thu Soe denied that any BGP officers had lied to conceal the deaths of the two detainees. He said the pair, who were father and son, died from asthma on the way to a hospital on Oct 18. Presidential spokesman Zaw Htay said the government “has instructed the police to look into unreliable reports” during their operation in Rakhine. He declined to elaborate. — Reuters
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