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Myanmar army deserters confirm atrocities against Rohingya Muslims

Two soldiers who deserted from Myanmar’s army have testified on video that they were instructed by commanding officers to “shoot all that you see and that you hear” in villages where minority Rohingya Muslims lived, a human rights group said on September 8.

The comments appear to be the first public confession by soldiers of involvement in army-directed massacres, rape, and other crimes against Rohingya in the Buddhist-majority country, and the group Fortify Rights suggested they could provide important evidence for an ongoing investigation by the Inter­national Criminal Court.

New Zealand mosque shooter sentenced to life without parole

On August 27, the White supremacist who slaughtered 51 worshipers at two New Zealand mosques was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the first time the maximum available sentence has been imposed in the country since the death penalty for murder was abolished in 1961.

Judge Cameron Mander said the crimes committed by 29-year-old Australian Bren­ton Harrison Tarrant were so wicked that a lifetime in jail could not begin to atone for them. He said they had caused enormous loss and hurt and stemmed from a warped and malignant ideology.