Mizzima
A National Unity Government minister has made a shocking comparison between the tactics of the Myanmar military and an atrocious campaign a few years ago.
The Myanmar military’s ongoing abusive operations and atrocities in Sagaing Region is similar to forcing hundreds of Rohingya people to leave to neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017, Dr Win Myat Aye, the Union Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management of National Unity Government told a meeting this week.
The NUG minister is in a good position to know.
During his gathering with the Myanmar community in Maryland in the United States on 30 July, Dr Win Myat Aye shared his experiences on efforts to deal with Rohingya issue in northern Rakhine State while he was the Union Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement under the National League for Democracy-led government.
While the Myanmar military was violently oppressing Rohingya labelling them as the ARSA Rohingya armed group in August 2017, Aung San Suu Kyi asked Dr Win Myat Aye to go there immediately to address the issue.
“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi rented a civil helicopter for me to go to Rakhine. She also said, ‘You should immediately go there by this helicopter. Don’t expect any help from others’.”
“Attacks on Rohingya occurred on 25 August. Our government officials discussed ways to find solutions, and we arrived in Rakhine on 27 August,” he said, adding that he failed to solve this problem as minister of the civilian government.
Dr Win Myat Aye remarked that the ongoing operation of the military in Sagaing Region is similar to forcing 700,000 to 800,000 Rohingya people to leave for Bangladesh, and their villages and houses under the mission of a “clearance operation”.
The Myanmar military is currently pursuing “slash-and-burn” attacks on villages in Sagaing.
He recounted that officials from the ministries of defence, home affairs and border affairs, as well as general administration department and immigration which are under the control of military did not allow them to make direct contact with Rohingya over “security concerns”.
He also told Myanmar community that the military listed all the resistance forces and their opponents into the title of their enemy.
During the meeting, Dr Win Myat Aye responded to the query of the VOA: “Although we were a civilian government, we could not address this issue due to the obstacle of the 2008 State Constitution. Officials from the ministries of defence, home affairs, border affairs, and immigration departments handled this issue. Senior officials of these departments are assigned by the military.”
He concluded that the 2008 Constitution was an obstacle for their civilian government to bring justice for the Rohingya people.
A statement of the Ministry of Human Rights under the NUG on 31 July said that the Myanmar military has committed at least 144 mass killings between February 2021 and July 2023, in which 1,595 civilians were killed.
Most of the massacres took place in Sagaing Region during this period, with 90 cases, followed by Magway with 15 cases.
