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UN mission demands top Myanmar military commanders’ trial for genocide
DHAKA, Aug 27, 2018 (BSS) – The UN fact finding mission on Myanmar today
demanded Burmese army chief and other top military commanders trial on
charges of committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Rakhine state,
the home of evicted Rohingya community, and some other areas of the country.
“The Mission called for the situation in Myanmar to be referred to the
International Criminal Court or for an ad hoc international criminal tribunal
to be created,” the UN said in a statement issued from Geneva.
The report said there was sufficient information to warrant the
investigation and prosecution of chain of command of Myanmar military, which
it called by their native term “Tatmadaw”, so the culprits could be exposed
to justice.
The mission drew up a list of alleged perpetrators as priority subjects
for investigation and prosecution, whom it believed “had effective control
and bear the greatest responsibility”.
The report said the responsibility starts at the top, with the Tatmadaw
Commander-in-Chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing and five other military
commanders.
“(But) a longer list of names will be kept in the custody of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights and can be shared with any competent and
credible body pursuing accountability in line with international norms and
standards,” it said.
The report noted that civilian authorities had little scope to control the
Tatmadaw actions but “through their acts and omissions, the civilian
authorities have contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes”.
It particularly criticized Aung San Suu Kyi saying the State Counsellor
did not use “her de facto position as Head of Government, nor her moral
authority, to stem or prevent the unfolding events in Rakhine State”.
The UN today published the report of its independent international Fact-
Finding Mission formed in March 2017, which, however, was never granted
access to Myanmar.
But the report said their investigators amassed a vast amount of
information from primary sources, including through 875 in-depth interviews
with victims and eyewitnesses, satellite imagery and authenticated documents,
photographs and videos.
The mission travelled to Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the
United Kingdom to gather information for its report.
The Myanmar military launched a brutal crackdown in northwestern Myanmar’s
Rakhine state In August last year on the plea of rebel attacks on its police
posts and a military base.
The crackdown is believed to have killed as high as 25,000 Rohingyas and
drove 700,000 of them out of their home to take makeshift refuge in
neighboring Bangladesh.
According to the report the UN investigators found patterns of gross human
rights violations and abuses committed in Kachin, Rakhine and Shan States
that “undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law,
principally by Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, but also by other security
forces”.
“Military necessity would never justify killing indiscriminately, gang
raping women, assaulting children, and burning entire villages. The
Tatmadaw’s tactics are consistently and grossly disproportionate to actual
security threats, especially in Rakhine State, but also in northern Myanmar,”
the report read.
It added: “They are shocking for the level of denial, normalcy and
impunity that is attached to them”.
The crimes against humanity committed in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine States
include murder; imprisonment; enforced disappearance; torture; rape, sexual
slavery and other forms of sexual violence; persecution and enslavement.
“The crimes in Rakhine State (in particular), and the manner in which they
were perpetrated, are similar in nature, gravity and scope to those that have
allowed genocidal intent to be established in other contexts,” the report
said.
The Mission called for the situation in Myanmar to be referred to the
International Criminal Court or for an ad hoc international criminal tribunal
to be created. In the interim, it called for an independent, impartial
mechanism to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of
violations.
It also recommended targeted individual sanctions against those who appear
to be most responsible.
The UN said a fuller report, containing detailed factual information and
legal analysis would be published and presented to the Human Rights Council
on 18 September with significant amount of satellite imagery analysis.
After seeing the report, Social media giant Facebook banned 20 individuals
and organizations in Myanmar – including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing,
commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and the military’s Myawady television
network.
“Specifically, we are banning 20 individuals and organizations from
Facebook in Myanmar – including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-
chief of the armed forces,” it said.
The list included the military’s Myawady television network.
Facebook said it took the decision as international experts, most recently
in a report by the UN Human Rights Council-authorized Fact-Finding Mission on
Myanmar, found evidence that many of these individuals and organizations
committed or enabled serious human rights abuses in the country.
BSS/TA/AR/1845 HRS