Myanmar rejects Rohingya abuses inquiry as UN report calls for action Several countries join the call for the country’s military leaders to face justice
Myanmar yesterday rejected the findings of a UN investigation into genocide by its military against the Rohingya.
The regime has come under immense pressure this week over last year’s military crackdown that sent more than 700,000 of the mostly Muslim minority fleeing into Bangladesh.
Monday’s report by a UN fact-finding mission said there was evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity “perpetrated on a massive scale”.
In a session of the UN Security Council late on Tuesday, several countries, including the US, called for Myanmar’s military leaders to face international justice.
But Myanmar rejected the UN mission and its findings.
“We didn’t allow the factfinding mission to enter into Myanmar, that’s why we don’t agree or accept any resolutions made by the Human Rights Council,” government spokesman Zaw Htay told the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
Mr Htay pointed to Myanmar’s Independent Commission of Inquiry, which he said was set up to respond to “false allegations made by the UN agencies and other international communities”.
He lashed out at Facebook for pulling down the pages of Myanmar’s army chief and other top military officers, saying that it could hamper the government’s efforts with “national reconciliation”.
The social-media giant has admitted it was too slow to react to the crisis, in which its platform – popular in Myanmar – became a forum for hate speech against the Rohingya. The UN report amounted to the strongest language yet from its officials on the human-rights offences.
The investigators, working under a mandate from the UN Human Rights Council, called for an international investigation, for the Security Council to impose targeted sanctions and an arms embargo on the entire country.
At a press conference, the mission said the actions in Myanmar amount to the “gravest crimes under international law”, stating that “criminal prosecution is warranted” for the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The mission also said that to expect justice from a domestic investigation in Myanmar is “simply naive, there is no accountability and there is no impartiality”.
The report was fiercely critical of the government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, stating it “contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes”, and that Ms Suu Kyi did not use her position to stem or prevent the crimes against the Rohingya.
Referring to Ms Suu Kyi’s culpability, the investigators state that “if the Nobel prize winner has such moral authority, perhaps she should act”, but clarified that the biggest share of blame is placed on the military.