Military Council informs refugee camps to bring 97 bodies of Rohingya : Myanmar

On March 13, the military council informed the officials of the Rohingya refugee camp in Sittwe to transport the bodies of 97 Rohingya who died in the battle near Angu Moana, Rase Taung Township, Rakhine State, according to those helping the Rohingya cause.

U Tun Khin, chairman of the Myanmar-Rohingya Association, which helps the Rohingya cause, said that the military council is using the Rohingya as human shields in the fighting in Rakhine State.

"Certainly, hundreds of people were taken from the war refugee camp as recruits to be forced. It is certain that these people were forcibly conscripted and made to be used as human shields by the military.”

Most of the 97 dead were young Rohingya from the Rohingya refugee camps in Sittwe, who were forcibly recruited by the Military Council.

RFA has not yet been able to independently confirm this news, and RFA has not been able to directly contact the officials of the Sittwe Rohingya refugee camp who were informed by the Military Council.

There are about 14 Rohingya refugee camps in Sittwe, with a population of over 100,000.

Rohingya activists also said that it is not clear which refugee camps the dead Rohingyas are from because it is difficult for camp officials to go and transport the bodies.

National Unity Government (NUG) Deputy Minister of Human Rights U Aung Kyaw Moe said that it is necessary to prosecute the military council for committing war crimes against the Rohingya in international courts.

"For the military council to forcefully take such a large number of young people from the place where they have been locked up in a refugee camp with no exit for decades and act as human shields, they are committing the war crimes of genocide and genocide that have not yet been completed. The military council needs to take full responsibility for this."

On March 12, the AA attacked a boat carrying more than 120 Rohingya refugees near Angu Maw, Rathetaung Township, where the military council and the Rakhine Army (AA) are fighting, said Rohingya aid workers. RFA is still in touch to get a response from AA regarding this statement, as well as the spokesperson of the Military Council, General Zaw Min Tun, who contacted RFA's Washington DC office by telephone, but he did not answer the phone.