US calls on Myanmar to probe attacks on Muslim minority

YANGON: The United States on Friday urged Myanmar to investigate reports that security forces and Buddhist mobs attacked members of the Rohingya Muslim minority this week, killing as many as 60 people.
A rights group said Friday that several people including women and a child have been killed in an attack on Rohingya Muslims in strife-torn western Myanmar.
Myanmar authorities denied any civilian deaths but confirmed a clash took place in which a police officer was presumed to have been killed.
Chris Lewa, the Bangkok-based director of The Arakan Project, which lobbies for Rohingya rights, said the attack on the village of Du Chee Yar Tan on Monday happened sometime after the initial clash with police.
“There were people killed, mostly women and children,” she told AFP, but added that reports from sources in the area on the number of people killed varied widely, from around 10 to 60.
Most of the victims were Muslims and the most deadly incidents happened in Rakhine state, where about one million Rohingya live under apartheid-like conditions, denied citizenship with their movements tightly restricted and with little access to health care, jobs or education.
The US Embassy in Yangon said on Twitter that it was “deeply concerned” about the violence “especially reports of excessive use of force by security officials.”
“The United States is deeply concerned about reports of fresh violence in Rakhine state, including reports that security forces may have committed abuses,” the US embassy official told Reuters.
“We urge (the) government to thoroughly investigate, bring perpetrators to justice, and ensure equal protection and security under the law in Rakhine,” it added.
Lewa said one villager, who has worked with The Arakan Project, reported seeing the bodies of two women and a 14-year-old boy with stab wounds after returning to the village days after the unrest. She said the use of knives suggested the involvement of local Rakhine Buddhists, who have repeatedly clashed with the Rohingya, rather than the police.
The Maungdaw area is populated mainly by stateless Rohingya, whose movements are strictly controlled by a heavy security presence.