Plans announced by Myanmar's military to prosecute soldiers for actions at a village where security forces reportedly killed as many as 400 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority drew skepticism Monday from the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch.

The military announced over the weekend that investigations had determined that orders were not properly followed at a village in Rakhine state. It gave no dates or other details of the offense, but said a court martial is being convened to act "in accordance with the military discipline due to the weakness in following the instructions in some of the incidents at Gutabyin village."

The Associated Press reported in January last year that evidence indicated that security forces had carried out a massacre in the village, also known as Gu Dar Pyin, and that the victims were buried in at least five mass graves. The military -- known in Myanmar as the Tatmadaw -- denied the report, and it is unknown if the new announcement is related to the same incident.

Human Rights Watch said Monday that the announcement did not indicate a change of attitude by the military, which denies carrying out abuses in a self-proclaimed counter-insurgency campaign two years ago that resulted in more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh. It has said its military operations in Rakhine were justified in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents.

Many human rights groups have accused Myanmar of carrying out genocide or ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya. A UN fact-finding mission has documented major abuses in Rakhine since 2016, including widespread killings and torching of villages, and said its findings warrant prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity in a forum such as the International Criminal Court.

"The Tatmadaw's decision to court-martial a few soldiers is hardly enough when we're talking atrocities that included murder, torture, rape and arson that destroyed people and their communities. This court-martial looks like just another game to divert international attention by sacrificing a few low-level scapegoats," Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, said in an email, urging that it should be the military's top commanders who face punishment.

"You can tell the Tatmadaw are not serious since they refuse to review their overall operation and hide these court-martial proceedings behind closed doors, out of sight of the public and media," Robertson said. "No one should be fooled to think this action marks any change of attitude in Myanmar's military, which is still denying they violated the rights of the Rohingya in the first place, and seeking to evade all international accountability for their crimes."

Myanmar has rejected the legitimacy of the UN's fact-finding mission and asserted it is carrying out its own investigations. The announcement of the planned prosecutions came after what it said was investigations carried out by the military's own Court of Inquiry.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, a Sri Lankan lawyer who is one of the UN mission's three international experts, last month told an informal Security Council meeting on accountability in Myanmar that they believe a domestic judicial process is not possible at this time.

She pointed to seven soldiers who were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison with hard labor for the killings of 10 Rohingya villagers but then were released after just nine months "because of the national and political pressure." The arrests followed an investigation by two Reuters journalists who were imprisoned for their reporting on the killings.

Last year's Associated Press report said the existence of five mass graves in the village under investigation had been confirmed through multiple interviews with more than two dozen survivors in Bangladesh refugee camps and through time-stamped cellphone videos. It said its reporting showed a systematic slaughter of Rohingya civilians by the military, with help from Buddhist neighbors.

The story said it was unclear just how many people died, but that community leaders in the refugee camps compiled a list of 75 dead up to that point, and villagers estimated the toll could be as high as 400, based on testimony from relatives and the bodies they've seen in the graves and strewn about the area.

You can call it a typical Jatiya Party flip-flop. 

Just a day after the JP Parliamentary Party decided to join the Awami League-led grand alliance government, HM Ershad came up with a decision exactly the opposite.  

The JP chairman said the party will be the main opposition in parliament with no representation in the new cabinet. He will act as the leader of the opposition while his younger brother and JP Co-Chairman GM Quader as deputy leader of the opposition.

Ershad made the sudden announcement through a statement that was sent to different media outlets yesterday, contradicting the decision the Parliamentary Party unanimously took in a meeting on Thursday.

READ MORE: No opposition needed!

"Since we participated in the election under the banner of the Awami League-led grand alliance, we want to join the government. Who will sit on the opposition bench is not our concern," GM Quader told journalists after the meeting.

He also said, "We doubt if people will accept us as the opposition if we quit the grand alliance now to play the role of the opposition.... We don't want to sit on the opposition bench … This is a practical problem for us.”

Twenty-two party leaders, except for Ershad, were present at the meeting. Earlier on Thursday, the JP chief couldn't take oath “due to illness” at a ceremony where the rest 21 were sworn in as lawmakers of the 11th parliament. 

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, several JP lawmakers termed Ershad's decision funny and arbitrary.

“The Jatiya Party Parliamentary Party unanimously decided that the party will remain in the grand alliance government. If the party wants to stay in the opposition, the JP Parliamentary Party will sit again to make a decision in this regard. The party's chairman cannot take the decision arbitrarily. His decision is nothing but funny,” a JP lawmaker told this correspondent, wishing anonymity.

Press release of Jatiya Party (JP) on January 4, 2019.

The JP lawmaker, who is also the party's presidium member, said according to the party charter, the JP Parliamentary Party, not the chairman, can elect the party leader and deputy leader in parliament.

Another lawmaker and JP presidium member said a few party leaders might have misguided Ershad.

“Sir [Ershad] is not in good health as his physical condition deteriorated recently. A few JP leaders took this opportunity to misguide him and persuade him to issue the announcement.

"We took part in the December 30 election under the banner of the AL-led grand alliance. We will have to talk with the partners in the grand alliance if we want to act as the opposition party.

“With 22 seats in parliament, we are not sure whether the government will acknowledge us as the opposition party because at least one-tenth of the total seats are required to be considered as the main opposition party.”

He said with 22 MPs, JP may be considered as an opposition group, not the opposition party. “That's why we first need to talk to the government.”

In his statement, Ershad yesterday said: "As the chairman of the Jatiya Party, I would like to inform the people of the country and party leaders and activists at all levels that Jatiya Party will act as the main opposition party in the 11th parliament."

He further said, "As the chairman of Jatiya Party Parliamentary Party, I'll be the leader of the opposition while party co-chairman Golam Quader deputy opposition leader of the House. No Jatiya Party MP will be there in the cabinet. I urge the Speaker of the House to take necessary steps in this regard."

In the December 30 polls, the AL-led grand alliance secured 288 seats. JP, a key component of the alliance, bagged 22. The BNP-led Jatiya Oikyafront managed to win only seven seats while independent candidates got three.

The election in Gaibandha-3 was rescheduled for January 27 following the death of a candidate, and re-polling will take place in three centres in Brahmanbaria-2 on January 9.

The Jatiya Oikyafront has announced that its MPs-elect will not take oath as the alliance rejected the polls results, alleging that the election was rigged by the ruling party.

Against this backdrop, there was a speculation that the JP may sit on the opposition bench.

The JP became the main opposition in the current parliament formed after the 2014 election, which the BNP-led alliance had boycotted.

The JP in that election won 34 seats and its senior leader Raushan Ershad was recognised as the leader of the opposition with the status of a minister. Three JP MPs were also made ministers.

Their dual role has been criticised. The party could not play its due role as the main opposition in parliament in the last five years.

Ershad, known as an unpredictable character in the political arena, has a record of playing mysterious roles.

In the middle of November, he became unreachable for most of the party ranks over several days as he stayed in a house at Gulshan instead of his residence in Baridhara.

In 2006, he went into hiding facing pressure from the then ruling BNP to join its alliance. On December 18 that year, he suddenly appeared at a Paltan Maidan rally organised by the AL, and announced his decision to join the AL-led alliance.

Ershad led his party to remain in the AL-led grand alliance to contest the 9th parliamentary election in 2008, held two years behind the schedule due to the state of emergency declared amid political turmoil.

Before the 10th national election, Ershad announced that the JP would not participate in the election and asked his party's candidates to withdraw their nomination papers.

Giving rise to questions and confusions, he was taken to the CMH from his Baridhara residence on December 12, 2013.

However, a section of JP leaders decided to join the polls. The party chairman was elected as a lawmaker in the January 5 polls in 2014 as he could not withdraw his candidacy from Rangpur-3.

From the CMH, where he had been staying for unknown “illness”, Ershad directly went to the Bangabhaban to attend the oath-taking ceremony of the prime minister and ministers of the new government on January 12, 2014.

On the same day, he was appointed special envoy of the prime minister with the status of a minister. Three of his party lawmakers were inducted into the council of ministers.

In the wake of criticism against his party for being in the opposition and in the cabinet at the same time, Ershad on several occasions in recent years said he would ask the three party men to step down as ministers, paving the way for the JP to emerge as the real opposition. 

Voting was meaningless in the 11th national election as it was well orchestrated by Awami League to get the desired outcome, Left Democratic Alliance (LDA) said today.

The left-leaning party alliance said this at a rally at the Jatiya Press Club this afternoon.

Demanding re-election under a neutral caretaker government, they said public opinion has not been reflected in the “over-managed” election.

Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) central committee member Ruhin Hossain Prince said polling centres were taken over by the ruling party activists across the country since early morning on the election day and opposition polling agents were not allowed in or were driven away.

People have been deprived of their voting rights through “stuffing of ballot boxes”, he alleged while reading out a statement.

There were many centres that ran out of ballot papers by 10:00am to 12:00noon, he claimed.

“These incidents made the election meaningless and farcical,” he said.