Bangkok: The Myanmar government has made a rare admission that its security forces used violence against Rohingya Muslims in western Rakhine state, after a video emerged showing police beating and kicking civilians.
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Four Myanmar policemen have been detained after the video posted on Youtube showed police stomping on a cowering villager several times in village near Maungdaw township on November 5.
Dozens of videos have emerged apparently showing Myanmar security forces abusing Rohingya but this is the first time the government said it would take action.
The government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has denied allegations of mass killings, rapes and burning of villages in Rakhine since October, when police border posts were attacked and nine officers killed.
The reports documented by human rights and journalists have raised global alarm over the plight of more than one million Rohingya, a minority in Buddhist majority Myanmar who are denied basic rights such as citizenship.
Last week more than a dozen Nobel prize winners criticised Ms Suu Kyi for failing protect Rohingyas, who have been described by the UN as among the world's most persecuted people.
More than 30,000 Rohingyas fleeing violence have arrived in camps in neighbouring Bangladesh in recent weeks.
Ms Suu Kyi's office said in a statement said the police went to the village acting on a tip-off that six suspects involved in an attack on police were hiding there.
Three men were arrested and weapons seized, including six machetes, a knife and a spear, the statement said, adding that other incidents would also be investigated.
Amnesty International has said unlawful killings, multiple rapes, arbitrary arrests and the burning of houses committed by Myanmar's security forces could amount to crimes against humanity.
The organisation's director for south-east Asia and the Pacific, Rafendi Djamin, accused Ms Suu Kyi of failing "to live up to both her political and moral responsibility to try to stop and condemn what is unfolding in Rakhine State. We are worried that the horrific tales of violations we have uncovered are just the tip of the iceberg."
The International Crisis Group has also warned that Asia is facing the emergence of a new Muslim insurgency led by a committee of Rohingyas living in Saudi Arabia and commanded on the ground by Rohingyas with international training and experience in guerrilla tactics.
