Myanmar generals must face justice: UN report
GENEVA A United Nations human rights panel said yesterday that Myanmar's commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing should step down after the panel's call for his prosecution on suspicion of "genocidal intent" and grave crimes against Muslim Rohingya.
"The only way forward is to call for his resignation and stepping down immediately," Mr Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, told a Geneva news conference.
The Myanmar government, which was sent an advance copy of the UN report, has not commented. Reuters was unable to contact General Min Aung Hlaing yesterday.
The civilian government led by Ms Aung San Suu Kyi has allowed hate speech to thrive, destroyed documents and failed to protect minorities from crimes against humanity and war crimes by the army in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states, the report said.
In doing so, it "contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes", the report said.
A year ago, government troops led a brutal crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state in response to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on 30 Myanmar police posts and a military base.
Some 700,000 Rohingya fled the crackdown and most are now living in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.
The UN report said the military action, which included the scorching of villages, was "grossly disproportionate to actual security threats".
The UN defines genocide as acts meant to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in whole or in part.
Such a designation is rare under international law, but has been used in countries including Bosnia and Sudan and in the ISIS campaign against the Yazidi communities in Iraq and Syria.
In the report, it said: "There is sufficient information to warrant the investigation and prosecution of senior officials in the Tatmadaw (army) chain of command, so that a competent court can determine their liability for genocide in relation to the situation in Rakhine state."
The massacre was uncovered by two Reuters journalists who were arrested as a result last December and are being tried on charges of violating the country's Official Secrets Act.
- REUTERS
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