A/HRC/39/CRP.2
“zero point”.2738 Myanmar security forces also used slingshots to shoot hard stones across the
border towards the Rohingya inside “zero point”, 2739 with one young girl injured and taken
for treatment in Bangladesh. 2740
1204. There have been credible reports that a very small number of Rohingya have
voluntarily returned to Myanmar to assess the conditions there for the possible return of
others. They have been detained, charged and convicted with crimes of illegal border
crossing.2741 Information indicates that some men who voluntarily returned were arrested and
ill-treated while in detention. They were reportedly convicted in absentia, imprisoned but
subsequently pardoned. Upon their release, they were reportedly forced to accept the NVC
and then taken to a securitized detention centre, where they were again threatened.2742 Many
managed to escape, or were permitted to escape, and to return to Bangladesh.
Use of landmines at the border
1205. Landmines were planted by Tatmadaw soldiers along border crossing points in
northern Maungdaw Township.2743 Soldiers were seen by witnesses laying mines in border
areas in the period after 25 August 2017.2744 Mines were planted, for example, on the
Myanmar side of “zero point” between Bangladesh and Myanmar. 2745
1206. A number of explosions in early September 2017 in this region caused deaths and
serious permanent injuries to Rohingya, including children. 2746 Some of the explosions
occurred when fleeing Rohingya stepped on landmines while crossing the land border into
Bangladesh.2747 Other injuries and fatalities were sustained by those trying to return to their
villages from Bangladesh or “zero point” to recover possessions or bring remaining relatives
with them.2748
1207. Two members of the same Rohingya family were casualties of mines in this border
region. This family fled the “clearance operations”, leaving behind one younger man to try
to protect the family property. Eventually, he also fled the violence. As he crossed the border
at Nga Yant Chaung village tract, in northern Maungdaw, he stepped on and detonated a
landmine and was critically injured. Two of his brothers travelled from Bangladesh to assist
him or recover his body. When they arrived, they found only remnants of his clothing at the
site of the explosion. During this attempt to find him, one of the other brothers also stepped
on a landmine and sustained severe injuries, losing a part of both legs and an arm, and being
blinded in one eye.2749
1208. The Mission met with another young man who had been severely injured by a
landmine, losing his left foot and the vision in his right eye, among other injuries. He had
been sheltering in the “zero point” area following the “clearance operations” but had returned
to Myanmar in an effort to recover some of his cattle. He stepped on the mine as he was
returning to Myanmar.2750 In a further incident, a middle-aged woman stepped on a landmine
in the “zero point” area and lost both her legs. 2751 Although fleeing Rohingya constituted the
2738
2739
2740
2741
2742
2743
2744
2745
2746
2747
2748
2749
2750
2751
CI-147, CI-148, LI-132.
CI-147, CI-148, LI-131, LI-132.
CI-147, CI-148.
CI-147, V-190, V-189. Government of the Republic of Myanmar, State Counsellors Office “The First
Returnee’s in the camps in Cox’s Bazaar arrived in Reception Centres” (Facebook post, 27 May
2018),
https://www.facebook.com/state.counsellor/photos/pcb.1285956094871937/1285955904871956
Ibid.
CI-147, CI-148, LI-132, QM-001, XM-005, V-087, V-176.
CI-147, CI-148, LI-132, QM-001, XM-005, V-087, V-176.
CI-009, CI-147, CI-148, LI-132, WI-001, WI-002.
QM-001, WM-003, K-076.20, V-177, V-178, V-179.
V-067, V-087.
CI-009, CI-147, CI-148, LI-132, WI-001, WI-002.
WI-001, WI-002, V-180.
CI-009.
CI-148, LI-132.
285