Myanmar army says no Rohingyas in Rakhine, only Bangali immigrants

Almost 75,000 people from the persecuted minority have escaped to Bangladesh after the military launched operations in the north of the restive state to find Rohingya militants who raided police border posts in October. Speaking to crowds assembled in the capital for armed forces day, army chief Min Aung Hlaing on Monday defended the military campaign. “The Bangalis in Rakhine State are not the Myanmar nationalities but the immigrants,” he said, according to an official translation. “The terrorist attacks which took place in October 2016 resulted in the political interferences.” Myanmar has long faced criticism for its treatment of the more than one million Rohingya who live in Rakhine State, who are rejected as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh or “Bangalis” despite many living there for generations. UN investigators believe the army may have committed war crimes. Last week the UN Human Rights Council agreed to dispatch an independent international fact-finding mission, with a view to “ensure full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims”. Myanmar’s civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi has meanwhile rebuffed the UN probe, saying any international fact-finding mission “would do more to inflame, rather than resolve, the issues at this time.”