Myanmar forces resume 'clearance operations' after two Buddhists killed in Rakhine state
- Military officials have blamed a recent uptick in violence, in which two Buddhists had their throats slit, on men ‘speaking Bengali language’
Myanmar forces are conducting new rounds of “clearance operations” in conflict-hit Rakhine state after four local Buddhists were attacked and two killed, the commander-in-chief’s office said on Thursday.
The violence occurred around the evening of December 17 along Pyu Ma creek in northern Rakhine state’s Maungdaw township, the same area where forces waged a bloody crackdown against the Rohingya last year.
More than 720,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after Myanmar launched clearance operations in August 2017, and UN investigators want the country’s top brass prosecuted for genocide for alleged abuses carried out during the expulsion.
Myanmar said it was defending itself against Rohingya militants who attacked police posts and has denied almost all claims of atrocities. But the commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing’s office said in the statement posted to his official website on Thursday that security forces were active again and had been carrying out “area clearance operations along Pyu Ma Creek.”
The post said the activity was sparked after two ethnic Rakhine Buddhist men did not return from fishing and were later found on the creek bank with their throats slit.
On the same day, two members of another ethnic Buddhist minority were attacked while fishing along the creek by six men “speaking Bengali language,” but they escaped and were treated at a local hospital. The post said authorities did not know the identities of the attackers.