A/HRC/42/50 stakeholders, including intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, researchers and diplomats, in person and remotely. 38. The mission adhered strictly to the principles of independence, impartiality and objectivity and to the obligation to “do no harm”. Special attention was paid to the protection of victims and witnesses, considering their well-founded fear of reprisals, especially following the publication of the mission’s previous report. 39. The mission assessed facts under international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law, as applicable in Myanmar. It also assessed facts in the light of general rules of State responsibility. B. Conflict between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army 40. On 4 January 2019, as Myanmar celebrated Independence Day, the Arakan Army launched coordinated attacks on four border police outposts in northern Buthidaung Township, Rakhine State, killing 13 police officers. While there had been clashes between the Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw since 2015, the conflict intensified in October 2018, with a significant escalation in hostilities in January 2019, affecting nine townships in Rakhine State and Paletwa Township in Chin State. 41. On 7 January 2019, the spokesperson of the Office of the President’s reported that the Government had ordered the military to carry out “counter-insurgent operations”. By July 2019, several Light Infantry Divisions, notorious for their disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law, were deployed to the region from across Myanmar to bolster the units stationed there. 42. The Rakhine people have long felt politically disenfranchised, economically marginalized and subjected to discrimination because of their ethnicity. The Arakan Army has a political agenda of Rakhine self-determination through a “confederacy”. It has been excluded from the National Ceasefire Agreement and the unilateral ceasefire declared by the Tatmadaw, extended until 31 August 2019. 43. The mission documented attacks by the Tatmadaw with indications that they were indiscriminate or where commanders failed to take appropriate precautionary measures, leading to the death and injury of civilians as well as the destruction of civilian property. In some of these attacks, the Tatmadaw used weaponry with wide-area effect in close proximity to the civilian population, without advance warning. 44. In 2019, the Tatmadaw has been increasing the rounding up and interrogating male ethnic Rakhine villagers, including minors, accusing them of belonging to the Arakan Army. They are often subjected to violent interrogations, at times amounting to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 45. The mission corroborated two incidents of deaths of ethnic Rakhine men in Tatmadaw custody. On 2 May 2019, in Kyauk Tan village, Rathedaung Township, Tatmadaw soldiers, including members of Light Infantry Division 22 and Battalion 537 and members of the border police, detained 275 men suspected of links to the Arakan Army in a school. On the first night of the detention, Tatmadaw soldiers shot into the unarmed crowd, killing six villagers and injuring eight others. Over the course of two weeks, the Tatmadaw gradually released most of the men. Approximately six men remain detained, charged with terrorism offences. The bodies of the deceased were not returned to their families but were buried. 46. On 10 April 2019, in Let Ka village, Mrauk-U Township, Tatmadaw soldiers from Light Infantry Divisions 22 and 55 detained 27 males, including at least one minor, suspected of being Arakan Army members. Taken first to a military detention facility, the detainees were severely tortured over a period of weeks. Three detainees died in custody. Although the Government claimed the men’s deaths were due to illness and suicide, the autopsy report was never made public and their bodies were cremated, not returned to their families. The 24 survivors, including the minor, were forced to sign confessions and were subsequently moved to police detention, where (at the time of writing) they are still being held on terrorism 8