A genocide against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims is continuing, UN investigators said on Wednesday as they presented a report to the UN Security Council, calling for the issue to be referred to an international tribunal.
UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar chairman Marzuki Darusman said that beyond mass killings, the conflict included the ostracization of the population, prevention of births and widespread displacement in camps.
“It is an ongoing genocide,” he told a news conference.
“We consider the genocide intent can be reasonably inferred,” he said as he presented the team’s report to a Security Council meeting.
“National sovereignty is not a license to commit crimes against humanity or genocide,” Darusman told the council.
“The Rohingya and all of Myanmar’s people, in fact the entire world, is looking at you to take action,” he added.
The 444-page report, first made public last month, called on the council to refer the issue to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, or to create an ad hoc tribunal, as was done with the former Yugoslavia.
The report said that Myanmar’s top generals, including Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, must be investigated and prosecuted for genocide in Rakhine state.
Myanmar has rejected accusations that its military committed atrocities in the crackdown last year that forced 720,000 Rohingya to flee over the border to Bangladesh.
“The conditions are not in place for a safe, dignified and sustainable return of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh” to Myanmar, Darusman said, adding any attempt would just risk more deaths.
He also said that Myanmar’s internal inquiries have “proven to be ineffective failures” so far.
At the end of an Oct. 10 to Saturday last week visit to the country, UN Special Envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener said that accountability and “inclusive dialogue” were the two important pillars for national reconciliation.
The government rejected the UN mission’s findings, questioning its independence and pointing out that it had itself established an independent investigative commission made up of Asian diplomats.
“We are willing and able to take on the accountability issues for any alleged human rights violation where there is sufficient evidence,” Burmese Ambassador to the UN Hau Do Suan told the Security Council on Wednesday.
The council meeting was called by Western powers, but opposed by China and Russia. Diplomats said China and Russia are likely to protect Myanmar from any action.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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