[The decision came shortly after the E.U. and Canada announced Monday the imposition of sanctions against Maung Maung Soe and six other military and police officers in Myanmar, also known as Burma. The seven — five army generals, a border guard general and a police commander — face asset freezes and a travel ban in the E.U. and Canada. Canada previously sanctioned Maung Maung Soe in February under a different act. The Myanmar military statement made no mention of the sanctions.]
By
Timothy McLaughlin
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Myanmar
military officers march in a parade to commemorate the 73rd Armed Forces
Day in
Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on March 27. (Aung Shine Oo/AP)
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Under pressure from Canada and the European
Union, the Myanmar military on Monday dismissed a general who is alleged to
have led a brutal campaign against Rohingya Muslims last year. It was an
unexpected move, one that suggests the military may be prepared to accept some
measure of accountability for the crisis.
Even as it announced the firing of Major Gen.
Maung Maung Soe, however, the military leadership stopped short of blaming him
for the operations. The general, it said, displayed “weakness” in the face of
militant attacks on police outposts in the country’s western Rakhine state in
2016 and 2017, according to a statement from the office of the commander in
chief of defense services, Min Aung Hlaing, that was posted on Facebook.
The decision came shortly after the E.U. and
Canada announced Monday the imposition of sanctions against Maung Maung Soe and
six other military and police officers in Myanmar, also known as Burma. The
seven — five army generals, a border guard general and a police commander — face
asset freezes and a travel ban in the E.U. and Canada. Canada previously
sanctioned Maung Maung Soe in February under a different act. The Myanmar
military statement made no mention of the sanctions.
The United States added the general to its
own sanctions list in December. He is the only military official to be punished
by the U.S. government in the wake of the brutal campaign that sent some
700,000 predominantly Rohingya Muslims fleeing into neighboring Bangladesh, in
what the United Nations, the United States and others have termed ethnic
cleansing.
Another commander, Lt. Gen. Aung Kyaw Zaw,
who was also sanctioned by the E.U. and Canada on Monday, was allowed to resign
from his position on May 22 because of poor health, the statement from the
commander in chief’s office said.
Until the end of last year, Aung Kyaw Zaw was
the commander of the Bureau of Special Operations No. 3, overseeing the army’s
Western Command, which operates in Rakhine, the E.U. said. Maung Maung Soe led
the Western Command until November.
Both men were responsible for “atrocities and
serious human rights violations committed against Rohingya population in
Rakhine State,” the E.U. said. “These include unlawful killings, sexual
violence and systematic burning of Rohingya houses and buildings.”
Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s minister of
foreign affairs, said in a statement that “Canada and the international
community cannot be silent. This is ethnic cleansing. These are crimes against
humanity.”
The U.S. Treasury Department similarly found
“credible evidence” that Maung Maung Soe is responsible for the mass killings
and arson attacks that happened under his command. When he was sanctioned by
the United States last December, a spokesman for Myanmar’s civilian government
said the decision was without evidence and based on unreliable accusations.
The U.S. government — which, according to the
State Department, “strongly supports” the move by the E.U. and Canada — is
considering sanctions on other people it believes are responsible for the
campaign against the Rohingya. There are up to eight individuals being
considered for the Treasury blacklist, according to Senate staff, as pressure
on Myanmar’s military intensifies nearly a year after the original attacks took
place.
A spokesman for the Treasury Department said
that it does not “telegraph sanctions or comment on investigations or
prospective actions.”
According to the statement from the commander
in chief’s office, Maung Maung Soe failed to adequately respond to “terrorist
attacks” launched in October 2016 and August 2017 by the Arakan Rohingya
Salvation Army (ARSA), a militant group that first emerged two years ago
claiming to fight on behalf of the marginalized Rohingya.
The statement noted that the military did not
find any fault with the general as he carried out his normal duties but that
during the attacks he displayed “shortcomings in timely response to early
warnings of the use of force and lawless acts” by ARSA.
The military has maintained that what it
calls “clearance operations” were a legitimate response to the August attacks.
This narrative has been largely embraced by the civilian government of Aung San
Suu Kyi and an overwhelming number of Myanmar people. The Rohingya are deeply
despised within Myanmar, where they are viewed primarily as illegal immigrants.
The campaign bolstered the popularity of the military, which stepped back from
direct rule of the country in 2011.
Human rights groups are advocating for more
sanctions coupled with action by the International Criminal Court to end
long-running impunity for Myanmar’s military. The court last week gave Myanmar
until July 27 to respond to a prosecution request that it consider hearing the
case of alleged deportations of Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh.
“These resignations — willful or coerced — do
not represent genuine accountability for the atrocities perpetrated by the
soldiers and security forces commanded by Maung Maung Soe or Aung Kyaw Zaw, for
that matter,” said Richard Weir, a Myanmar researcher for Human Rights Watch.
“Moreover, there has been no admission that
these individuals bear responsibility for the atrocities committed by the
troops below them, by acts of omission or direct orders,” Weir said. “The
victims of these atrocities deserve answers and they deserve some measure of
justice. They deserve to have these men held accountable, not a cushy
retirement.”
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