A/HRC/39/CRP.2
only involving small portions of rice, with allegations of instances when the rice was thrown
on the ground for them to eat by licking the floor.1448 Fluids given to detainees appear to have
deliberately included urine at times.1449
673. Much of the mistreatment was perpetrated by ethnic Rakhine detainees, facilitated by
the prison authorities.1450 There are allegations that some Rakhine may have been brought
into the prison for this specific purpose.1451 One former detainee referred to 10 ethnic Rakhine
detainees who were “in charge of discipline”, 1452 although the overall number involved may
have been larger.1453 The ethnic Rakhine detainees perpetrated the abuse throughout all hours
of the day, particularly when they were sharing the same cells as Rohingya detainees. Mostly
it involved severe, repeated and systematic beatings with wooden sticks, including while
being forced to adopt a “praying position”, kneeling on the ground. Similar beatings were
also carried out by prison guards. Guards used catapults to fire pellets at detainees from
outside the cells and some reportedly made detainees crawl on the floor and beat them in this
position.1454
674. The beatings were accompanied by insults and references to retribution for the alleged
violence.1455 For example, one interviewee stated that the ethnic Rakhine detainee beating
him said, “you burned our homes, you killed our people. Is this your country?” 1456 It appears
that men with beards, often religious persons, were particularly targeted and suffered
mistreatment focused on the forced removal of their beards. 1457 One Rohingya interviewee
stated that he was forced to “pull out the beards” of 10 to 20 detainees, with his hand: “It was
very painful for all of them. They were bleeding, and I was helpless. I did not have any other
option. I felt bad.”1458
675. For the period following the June 2012 violence, there are also credible and consistent
reports of men and boys being subjected to sexual violence, including rape, sexualised torture
and humiliation, either by authorities or in their presence. 1459 Rohingya boys were detained
in the same cells as adult men. Detainees stated that guards anally raped Rohingya boys. At
night, groups of boys and young men were subjected to penile rape, both orally and anally,
by ethnic Rakhine detainees, often in the same cell as other detainees. One former detainee
described how boys were taken into the latrine after dark:
Almost every night they took these boys to the latrine in the cell. They forced them to
perform oral sex and raped them. If they refused, they put their face into the latrine.
We used to hear the screaming of the victims, but we were helpless and could do
nothing.1460
1448
1449
1450
1451
1452
1453
1454
1455
1456
1457
1458
1459
1460
158
CI-130, CI-136, CI-176, DI-037, QI-105, QI-107, KI-076.4.
CI-136, CI-176, QI-108.
DI-037; KI-076.2, KI-076.3, KI-076.5.
In 2013, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar said: “In Rakhine State,
following violence in June 2012, Muslim men and boys were allegedly arbitrarily detained in
Buthidaung prison. They were subjected to three months of systematic torture and ill-treatment by
prison guards and up to 20 prison inmates, who appear to have been brought into the prison for the
specific purpose of administering beatings to Muslim prisoners”, A/68/397, para. 10; KI-076.4.
DI-037.
A/68/397, para. 10.
QI-105, QI-107, QI-108; KI-076.4, KI-076.5. Similar beatings continued more recently. One
interviewee informed the Mission that, when he visited his relatives in the prison in early 2017, they
were “hardly recognisable”, with marks on their bodies and their faces swollen and black.
CI-130, CI-136, QI-105, QI-106, QI-108.
QI-105.
CI-082, CI-176. This happened to Rohingya men detained during the post-25 August 2017 “clearance
operation”, including an account of more than 30 religious leaders whose beards were burned off with
gas lighters.
CI-136.
CI-136, DI-037, QI-107, QI-108.
CI-136.