NEW YORK: A UN report has said top military figures in Myanmar must be investigated for genocide in Rakhine state and crimes against humanity in other areas.
The report, based on hundreds of interviews, is the strongest condemnation from the UN so far of violence against the Rohingya.
The army’s tactics are “consistently and grossly disproportionate to actual security threats”, it says.
It is also fiercely critical of Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, for failing to intervene to stop the violence.
The government has consistently said its operations targeted militant or insurgent threats.
But the report says the crimes it has documented are “shocking for the level of denial, normalcy and impunity that is attached to them”.
“Military necessity would never justify killing indiscriminately, gang raping women, assaulting children, and burning entire villages.”
Genocide is the most serious charge that can be made against a government, and is rarely proposed by UN investigators.
That this report finds sufficient evidence to warrant investigation and prosecution of the senior commanders in the Myanmar armed forces is a searing indictment, which will be impossible for members of the international community to ignore.
However taking Myanmar to the ICC, as recommended by the report, is difficult. It is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the court, so a referral to the ICC would need the backing permanent five Security Council members – and China is unlikely to agree.
The report suggests instead the establishment of a special independent body by the UN, as happened with Syria, to conduct an investigation in support of war crimes and genocide prosecutions.
The government of Myanmar has until now rejected numerous investigations alleging massive atrocities by its military. This one will be much harder to dismiss.
The UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar was set up in March 2017áto investigate widespread allegations of human rights abuses in Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine state.
