BANGKOK, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Security forces in Myanmar are suspected of committing atrocities against Muslims in western sections of the country, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
The rights organization, in a 56-page report, accused authorities in Myanmar, previously known also as Burma, of lax security during an outbreak of violence in Rakhine state in the west of the country in June.
Brad Adams, director of the Asia program at Human Rights Watch, said security forces failed to protect Muslim and Buddhists in the region from each other and then "unleashed a campaign of violence" against Muslims in response.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay last week said "a stream of reports" from Myanmar suggested security forces had instigated, or were directly involved in, ethnic fighting.
Pillay's office said at least 78 people have died as a result of regional conflict and more than 70,000 people were displaced.
Myanmar was praised for a series of political reforms taken since general elections in 2010. Former prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi serves as a member of Parliament two years after her release from house arrest. Concerns over the human rights situation have emerged as renewed concerns, however.
"This is a test case of the government's stated commitment to reform and protecting basic rights," said Adams from Bangkok.
