Amnesty describes it as "collective punishment." A senior UN official suggested the goal appears to be "ethnic cleansing." Regardless of how it is described, it is clear the violence unleashed by Myanmar against its minority Rohingya Muslim population has been devastating.
John McKissick, with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said security forces in Myanmar were "killing men, shooting them, slaughtering children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing people to cross the river into Bangladesh." He accused the Myanmar military and border guard police of engaging in collective punishment of the Rohingya minority, arguing that they are using the killings of nine border guards in October as an excuse for the current crackdown.
Myanmar's presidential spokesman reportedly responded by denying reports of the atrocities, and advising McKissick to "maintain his professionalism and his ethics as a United Nations officer because his comments are just allegations." (Courtesy of edition.cnn.com)
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