Myanmar security forces have committed serious rights abuses against Muslims in violence-hit western Rakhine state during six weeks of emergency rule, Amnesty International said Friday. Hundreds of people, mostly men and boys, have been detained in sweeps of areas heavily populated by the Muslim Rohingya group, with almost all held incommunicado and some ill-treated, it said.
Most arrests appear to have been "arbitrary and discriminatory", it added. "In six weeks, Myanmar has not only added to a long litany of human rights violations against the Rohingya, but has also done an about-turn on the situation of political imprisonment," said Amnesty researcher Benjamin Zawacki.
While communal violence appears to have eased since the unrest erupted in early June, violations by the security forces have increased, he said. Amnesty said there were "credible reports" of abuses - including rape, destruction of property and unlawful killings - by both Rakhine Buddhists and the security forces. Communal violence between ethnic Buddhist Rakhine and local Muslims, including the Rohingya, has left at least 80 people dead and forced tens of thousands on both sides to flee as homes were torched.
Both sides have accused each other over the violence, which has overshadowed political reforms widely hailed by foreign governments. Decades of discrimination have left the Rohingya stateless, and they are viewed by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities. Myanmar's reformist President Thein Sein told a UN envoy earlier this month that refugee camps or deportation was the "solution" for the Rohingya. Speaking a Bengali dialect similar to one in the south-east of neighbouring Bangladesh, the Rohingya are seen as illegal immigrants by the Myanmar government and many Burmese, and many have attempted to flee overseas in rickety boats.