MILITARY/REX TILLERSON/STATE: “U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday [11-15-17] pressed Myanmar’s top civilian and military leaders to allow an independent investigation into a crackdown against ethnic Rohingya Muslims that has driven more than 600,000 people into neighboring Bangladesh.
In a news conference with Aung San Suu Kyi, who heads the country’s civilian government, Mr. Tillerson said he was ‘deeply concerned by credible reports of widespread atrocities committed by security forces and by vigilantes unrestrained by security forces.’ An internal probe by the military concluded this week that no violations had occurred, drawing criticism from human-rights groups.
Refugees living in camps in Bangladesh have shared horrific accounts of killing, rape and arson by security forces. Aid agencies fear hundreds of Rohingya are dead, but evidence has been difficult to accumulate because Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has denied international fact-finding teams access. Humanitarian and nonprofit groups have largely been shut out.
Mr. Tillerson said his government was still evaluating whether the violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state amounted to ethnic cleansing, a term the United Nations and some Western leaders have used. He said the actions had ‘a number of characteristics’ of crimes against humanity.”
-Niharika Mandhana, “Tillerson Calls for Independent Probe Into Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 15, 2017 08:01am