Devastating cruelty against Rohingya children, women and men detailed in UN human rights report

Mass gang-rape, killings – including of babies and young children, brutal beatings, disappearances and other serious human rights violations by Myanmar’s security forces in a sealed-off area north of Maungdaw in northern Rakhine State have been detailed in a new UN report issued Friday based on interviews with victims across the border in Bangladesh.

Of the 204 people individually interviewed by a team of UN human rights investigators, the vast majority reported witnessing killings, and almost half reported having a family member who was killed as well as family members who were missing. Of the 101 women interviewed, more than half reported having suffered rape or other forms of sexual violence.

Especially revolting were the accounts of children – including an eight-month old, a five-year-old and a six-year-old – who were slaughtered with knives. One mother recounted how her five-year-old daughter was trying to protect her from rape when a man “took out a long knife and killed her by slitting her throat.” In another case, an eight-month-old baby was reportedly killed while his mother was gang-raped by five security officers. (Courtesy of ohchr.org)

Myanmar army killed and raped in Rohingya ethnic cleansing - U.N

Myanmar's security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that probably amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly "ethnic cleansing", the U.N. human rights office said on Friday.

Witnesses testified to "the killing of babies, toddlers, children, women and elderly; opening fire at people fleeing; burning of entire villages; massive detention; massive and systematic rape and sexual violence; deliberate destruction of food and sources of food", the report said.

One woman told U.N. investigators how her eight-month baby boy had had his throat slit. Another was raped by soldiers and saw her five-year-old daughter killed as she tried to stop them. (Courtesy of reuters.com)

Inside the Rohingya Resistance: The rebels who provoked Myanmar's crackdown

Walking barefoot, armed with knives, sticks and a few stolen guns, dozens of young men march through the muddy fields of Myanmar's Rakhine State.

"We will not rest, these are our fighters, come and join us," one says on the video uploaded to YouTube.

Together, they represent the first armed insurgency to emerge from the Muslim minority Rohingya in decades.

They call themselves Harakat al-Yaqeen, or "Faith Movement," and they have claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on Myanmar border posts in October, which killed nine police officers. (Courtesy of edition.cnn.com)

Brazen Killing of Myanmar Lawyer Came After He Sparred With Military

The soft-spoken rights lawyer had devised a plan to replace Myanmar’s Constitution with one that would strip the military of its extraordinary political powers.

The lawyer, U Ko Ni, a top adviser to the governing National League for Democracy, had recently been working on a new draft, a colleague said, and he hoped to promote his project at a conference this month.

But when he returned to the Yangon airport on Sunday from a trip to Indonesia, cradling his young grandson in his arms as he waited for a taxi, a man drew a pistol and shot him in the head.

The killing appears to have been a rare political assassination in Myanmar, fueling rumors, distrust and worry about the country’s future. (Courtesy of nytimes.com)