Myanmar urged to probe Rohingya woman’s death

YANGON: Human rights advocates have called on Myanmar to investigate the death of a young woman from the country’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, who died this month after being found naked and unconscious near a military base.

The woman, identified as Raysuana, 25, was found by a road next to an army compound in Sittwe, the capital of the conflict-torn Rakhine State in western Myanmar, residents and rights group Amnesty International said.

She had gone missing while walking in an area where more than 100,000 Rohingya have been living in camps since Sittwe was roiled by communal violence in 2012, Amnesty said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Most of the displaced are Rohingya Muslims, a group that many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar regard as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The stateless Rohingya are prevented from moving freely and their access to healthcare and education is restricted.

Hla Myint, a Rohingya administrator, told Reuters he was called by a corporal from an army artillery unit and asked to collect the unconscious Raysuana early on Aug. 18.

"She was still breathing when I saw her, but she was lying on the ground.

There were no clothes on her body apart from a bra but someone had covered her with a blanket," Hla Myint said.

She was taken to a village clinic where attendants noticed bruising on her neck and bleeding from her v....a, Hla Myint said. The woman died that evening, he said.

Residents of conflict-plagued ethnic minority regions and human rights workers have for years accused Myanmar troops of rights abuses including rape.