The United Nation's International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar has accused Myanmar military of systematically raping women and killing children, and persecuting the country's Rohingya Muslim minority, after it has released its 15 months investigation report into violence against the Rohingya. Dozens of recommendations has been made, including reforming Myanmar's military and justice systems.
International communities see that Aung San Suu Kyi does not take enough action to prevent this violence and gives impunity to Myanmar military to pursue this act therefore it is also part of this crimes according to Reuters report.
United Nation's International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar said that hundreds, possibly thousands of Rohinya women and girls were raped in public before being killed or mutilated according to its report on violence against Rohingya Muslim minority.
This has lead to more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh since Myanmar military has utilizing violence tactic call Tatmadaw to crackdown this Myanmar minority in August 2017 in Rakhine state. It is estimated that tens of thousands of Rohingya are dead and thousands of home are burnt to ash.
While international communities are mainly focusing on the Rohingya issues in Rakhine State, the UN's international report also showing details of possible war crimes or crimes against humanity in Shan and Kachin state in Myanmar dating back to 2011.
UN's report has also called international communities to prosecute Myanmar top military commander Min Aung Hlaing and its top leaders for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Though Myanmar is very keen to hear the report and it is serously concern about the finding, it said that it is just one side's report. Myanmar officials said that it does not know if international communities wants peace and justice for Myanmar or it is actually biased towards Myanmar.
"We have concluded that the Rohingya constitute a protected group, that the acts of the Tatmadaw and other security forces fall within four of the five categories of genocidal acts, and finally, that all the circumstances are such as to warrant an instance of genocidal intent." said Darusman.
The report also calls for sanctions to be placed on individuals complicit in the violence against the Rohingya. It also calls for an overhaul of the Tatmadaw. It asks that the Tatmadaw be placed under civilian oversight, its leaders be replaced, and for the seats it holds in parliament to be abolished. Mr Darusman says peace will not be achieved while the Tatmadaw remains above the law.
"Normally one would turn to one's national justice system to remedy. Let us be clear here - any hope that Myanmar’s national justice system will provide justice and truth for human rights violations committed by the military would be unfounded." said Darusman.
The report, which drew evidence through first-hand testimony from hundreds of victims and witnesses, is one of the most extensive ever by a U-N inquiry. Mr Darusman says action must be taken soon.
"We have full confidence in our findings, which are based on a solid body of credible information. What we found are crimes that shock the human conscience. We now turn to you, the distinguished members of the council, to take action commensurate with the gravity of the facts." said Darusman
A European Union (EU) spokesman says the bloc will look to do just that, while British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has called to bring the perpetrators to justice and a US Congressman has call for a hearing about the treatment of Rohinyga Muslim which mounting more pressure on Myanmar over the incident.
"The EU is appalled by the findings contained in the report. (The) Human Rights Council, the UN’s body addressing the human rights and the body that also established the fact-finding mission, must now take up its responsibility to follow up urgently to these extremely grave findings." EU's spokesman.
Myanmar says it takes the report's allegations of premeditated violence seriously, but claims the report is one-sided. Myanmar has opposed the U-N's fact finding mission since it began, saying it undermines the government's own efforts to bring stability back to conflict-ridden areas.
Now the mission's report has been released, Myanmar's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, is repeating that sentiment.
"Its composition and mandate raise serious and genuine concern that it lacked impartiality. Not only is this report detrimental to social cohesion in Rakhine state, it also undermines the government’s efforts to bring peace, national reconciliation and development to the entire nation," said Suan.
The fact-finding mission has also expressed concern at Myanmar's imprisonment of two journalists who were reporting on the violence. The Reuters reporters were jailed for seven years earlier this month ((Sep 3)) for breaching a Colonial-era law on state secrets. According to Reuters reports, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also called Mynmar government to pardon and free those two journalists. Tsis tas li no los Fatou Bensouda uas yog tus coj cov kwv hais plaub ntawm pej kum haiv lub tsev hais plaub International Criminal Court-ICC tau qhia tias nws twb tau pib los txheeb xyuas thiab tshuaj ntsuam xyuas Pab mab cov neeg pawg tsawg no lawm thiab.#
Further readings:
- https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFM-Myanmar/A_HRC_39_64.pdf
- https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/MyanmarFFMReport.aspx
- https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/pressure-on-myanmar-over-rohingya-crisis-grows-09202018161137.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/19/myanmar-rohingya-crisis-icc-begins-investigation-into-atrocities
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