8/8/22, 9:18 PM New evidence shows how Myanmar's military planned the Rohingya purge Army chief Min Aung Hlaing traveled to northern Rakhine around the time of the expulsion of the Rohingya, CIJA said. A CIJA document records previously unreported comments he made to officials in Rakhine during his trip. He ordered non-Rohingya locals to remain in their homes “instead of leaving,” referring to a large discrepancy in population size between Muslims and other ethnic groups in Rakhine. He told the audience he understood they “do not want to keep Bengali villages near.” During the expulsion of the Rohingya, troops were given instructions to delete photos that might be incriminating, said Nay Myo Thet. He and Moe Yan Naing, the former police captain, said security force members placed machetes beside the bodies of dead Rohingya and took photographs so it would look like they were insurgents. Sensitive orders from senior commanders were given by phone rather than in writing, said Nay Myo Thet. Documents in the CIJA cache show how the military feared international retribution over the Rakhine operation. A 2018 presentation that CIJA said was shown in officer training sessions assessed the possibility of foreign intervention triggered by an invocation of the UN’s “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine. R2P, as it’s known, has been used to support international intervention in countries where rulers are committing atrocities. One of the documents in the CIJA cache deals with the likelihood of foreign intervention in Myanmar over the expulsion of the Rohingya. It is titled “The R2P (Responsibility to protect) and Myanmar’s politics” https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-rohingya-warcrimes-investigation/ 22/34