Two Myanmar soldiers confessed during a video testimony that supports the widespread claims that the country's military has long been trying to get rid of the ethnic minority with a genocidal campaign.
Confessing to massacres
According to The New York Times, the two soldiers monotonously confessed their crime, showing only hints of emotion. The individuals revealed that they conducted executions, mass burials, destruction of villages, and rape.
During the testimony, Private Myo Win Tun said that their commanding officer ordered them in August 2017 to "Shoot all you see and all you hear."
The individual said he obeyed the orders and took part in the massacre that killed 30 Rohingya Muslims. Soldiers buried the victims near a cell tower and military base, marking a mass gravesite.
Stationed in a nearby township, private Zaw Naing Tun said that he and his comrades followed similar orders that their commanding officer issued: "Kill all you see, whether children or adults."
Zaw Naing Tun said that he and his colleagues laid waste to about 20 villages across the region, adding that he also took part in the mass burial of bodies.
A rebel militia recorded the two Myanmar soldiers' video testimony. It is the first time that members of the country's military, the Tatmadaw, have publicly confessed to partaking in a genocidal campaign to eradicate the nation's Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority.
The two men fled Myanmar last month and were transported to the Hague on Monday. The International Criminal Court opened a case that aims to reveal if the Tatmadaw leaders conducted massive, large-scale crimes against the Rohingya Muslims.
Acts of sexual crimes
Myo Win Tun also revealed he raped Muslim women before shooting and killing them. He said that his superiors also conducted forced sexual acts, including the Corporals, Sergeants, and other Officers, as reported by NBC News.
Zaw Naing Tun said his allies also took part in Rohingya women's horrific raping but said he himself did not conduct such actions. He said his superiors ordered him to guard the area where the crimes were committed.
The soldier said he stood outside while the other personnel raped the Muslim women, saying his rank required him to do the sentry. He said he could not remember all of the names of colleagues who conducted the rapes because there were many of them.
According to TRT World, the Fortify Rights group said on Tuesday that the video testimonies provide crucial evidence supporting the ongoing investigation that the International Criminal Court is conducting.
Since August 2017, at least 700,000 Rohingya citizens fled Myanmar to Bangladesh in an attempt to escape the Myanmar military and what they called a clearance campaign.
However, Myanmar's government denied the accusations that its military conducted mass killings and rape and the destruction of thousands of homes across the country.
The 2017 massacre of the Rohingya Muslims sparked one of the fastest fleeing of refugees worldwide. Nearly 750,000 people were left without a state within a few weeks. They were forced out of their homes in the Rakhine State of Myanmar after security personnel assaulted their villages armed with rifles, machetes, and flamethrowers.
