One year after the Rohingya crisis broke out in Myanmar, the international community still remains divided on how to respond to the crimes committed against this ethnic minority and about their future.
The divide was evident on Tuesday during a United Nations Security Council meeting.
The meeting took place a day after UN experts investigating the Rohingya crisis said that the Myanmar military carried out atrocities against the Rohingya with "genocidal intent".
The experts urged the Security Council to refer the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague or to create an ad hoc tribunal to try those responsible for the crimes.
On Tuesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres did not explicitly mention the ICC, but said that the Security Council should take the recommendations seriously and ensure accountability.
Guterres stance was similar to that of the Western powers in the Security Council - the United States, France and the United Kingdom - but it was rejected by the other two permanent members of the body, Russia and China.
Moscow and Beijing, which have defended the Myanmar government since the crisis first arose, said that the Myanmar authorities have shown progress in terms of their crisis management and the international community should, therefore support them instead of putting more pressure on them.
Moscow and Beijing on Tuesday tiptoed over the alleged killings of Rohingya civilians, with Russia insisting that the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) was the main cause of the crisis.
A year ago, the ARSA carried out a coordinated attack in Myanmar, sparking a violent response from the military which led to an exodus of over 700,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh.
However, the UN maintained that the ARSA attacks can in no way justify "the disproportionate use of force against civilian populations and the gross human rights violations committed by the Myanmar security forces and their allies," Guterres said Tuesday.
A Myanmar representative who attended the meeting reiterated that Myanmar does not recognize the UN investigation into the alleged crimes as it doubts the impartiality of this mission, and defended that it has set up its own independent commission to probe the case.
US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, however assured that the UN findings were consistent with a US state department investigation.
The Security Council meeting concluded without an international consensus on the immediate fate of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Russia and China agreed that the return of these refugees to Myanmar should start as soon as possible, but other countries and the UN argued that the minimum necessary conditions for their return are still not met.
UNHCR ambassador and actor Cate Blanchett spoke at the meeting, giving a chilling account of her trip to the Rohingya refugee camps earlier this year. "Like you, I have heard the gut-wrenching accounts. Stories of grave torture, of women brutally violated, people who have had their loved ones killed before their eyes. Children who have seen their grandparents locked in houses that were set alight."
Blanchett finished her address to the Security Council with "We have failed the Rohingya before. Please, let us not fail them again."
