Myanmar army clears itself of Rohingya atrocity claims

beach myanmar Rohingya refugee Din Mohammad shows injuries sustained before he fled to Bangladesh during an interview with AFP in a refugee camp in Ukhyia on November 25, 2016
� AFP/File MUNIR UZ ZAMAN




Yangon (AFP) - beach myanmar beach myanmar 's army on Tuesday cleared itself of allegations that troops may have carried out ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, but said a soldier had been jailed for taking a motorbike.

More than 70,000 members of the persecuted minority fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after the military launched a widespread crackdown late last year in the north of Rakhine state to hunt down insurgents who attacked police border posts.

UN investigators who interviewed hundreds of escapees documented reports of mass killings, widespread rapes and horrifying accounts of babies being thrown into burning houses.

In a report released in February they said security forces may have committed atrocities so severe they amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

But on Tuesday the military said the results beaches of myanmar its own investigation, led by army chief Aye Win, showed those charges were "false and fabricated".