COCONUTS YANGON
Rohingya Blogger02.01.2016
The Myanmar State Counsellor Office has announced that action will be taken against several police officers who were caught on video rounding up and beating Rohingya men in Koe Tan Kauk Village in northern Rakhine State.
The video, which the government report says was titled “An Accident in Rakhine State”, was filmed by a member of the Myanmar Police Force. It began circulating on social media on Saturday evening. It shows police officers beating, kicking and humiliating male villagers, who were forced to keep their hands on their heads while taking the blows.
The State Counsellor Office Information Committee said it has launched an investigation of the incident in cooperation with the police force and the Home Affairs Ministry.
The video was reportedly filmed on November 5 by police officer Zaw Myo Htike. It shows fellow officer Pyai Phyo Thwin carrying out the beatings.
The State Counsellor Office, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, claims the beatings took place during clearance operations after “six violent attackers on three motor bikes shot at 11 policemen from the Norular Police Outpost led by Police Inspector Kyaw Myint of No. 22 Security Force at 5:50pm on 3 November”.
The news site Rohingya Blogger, however, says the violence on November 3 was actually related to infighting within the police force. The site also claims the beatings were carried out to punish the villagers for protesting against the Myanmar government during a visit to the village by the UN resident coordinator and other foreign diplomats on November 3.
The State Counsellor report also mentions the protest, saying the villagers were rounded up while police were searching for a man who provided the villagers with “placards containing fake information”.
Rohingya Blogger previously reported on the beatings on November 5, before the video emerged, saying all the boys and men above the age of eight were rounded up in the local mosque compound while police “[looted] the valuables gold jewelries from the women”.
“An Imam Abdul Halim was tortured to an unconscious state and people thought that he had died. Another Imam Rahmatullah and some others are in very critical condition. Some were tortured almost to death,” says the November 5 report.
The same blog also reported that members of the Military Security Affairs department (locally known as Sa Ra Pha) visited the village on January 1 and took photos of the village and of local leaders.
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