Turkey reiterates support for Rohingya Muslims

Turkey on Monday urged the Myanmar government to take steps to end crimes against Rohingya Muslims.

The Foreign Ministry said on its website that the humanitarian crisis started after the Aug. 25, 2017 attacks in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine State against Rohingya Muslims.

On Aug. 25, 2017, Myanmar launched a major military crackdown on the Muslim ethnic minority, killing almost 24,000 civilians and forcing 750,000 others to flee to Bangladesh, according to the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

In the statement, the ministry said the Rohingya faced human rights violations which correspond to heaviest crimes as part of the international law.

The Foreign Ministry called on the Myanmar government to take steps to find a permanent solution to the problem by cooperating with the international community; it also urged Myanmar to ensure the return of the displaced Rohingya in a safe, honorable and permanent way.

Turkey has from the start made great efforts on the Rohingya, prompting the international community to show necessary sensitiveness to the crisis.

The ministry added Turkey will continue to voice the humanitarian crisis affecting the Rohingya and it would also support efforts for a permanent solution with dialogue between Myanmar and Bangladeshi governments.

Earlier on Monday, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, released a report and said human rights violations and abuses committed in Kachin, Rakhine and Shan States need to be probed at the International Criminal Court. It also called for an investigation and prosecution of Myanmar's top military officials for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Rohingya Muslims.

"Military necessity would never justify killing indiscriminately, gang raping women, assaulting children, and burning entire villages.The Tatmadaw’s [Myanmar's armed forces] tactics are consistently and grossly disproportionate to actual security threats, especially in Rakhine State, but also in northern Myanmar," the report reads.

The report added that crimes against humanity committed on Rohingya Muslims include murder, rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence.

"The crimes in Rakhine State, and the manner in which they were perpetrated, are similar in nature, gravity and scope to those that have allowed genocidal intent to be established in other contexts," the report said.

More than 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

In its recent report, Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience, the OIDA increased the estimated number of murdered Rohingya to 23,962 (±881) from an earlier Doctors Without Borders figure of 9,400.

More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, the OIDA report said, adding that 17,718 (±780) Rohingya women and girls were raped by the Myanmar army and police. More than 115,000 Rohingya houses were burned and 113,000 others were vandalized, it added.