By ASIAN
Correspondent
“All the information
collected so far points to violence of an extremely cruel nature,” the report
said. “We have ample and corroborated information on brutal gang rapes and
other forms of sexual violence against women.”
While Lee expressed
hope that de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi would eventually put a stop to the
campaign of violence, she also said the government leadership who did not
intervene must also be held accountable.
THE widespread and
systematic nature of the State-led violence against Rohingya Muslims in Burma
(Myanmar) “points to prior planning and organisation,” according to a new
report released Monday by the UN Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar.
They also said any
attempt to deny the atrocities being committed in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine
states was “untenable,” and pushed for an independent body to start collecting
evidence to prosecute those responsible at the International Criminal Court
(ICC).
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| Mr.Marzuki |
“The body of
information and materials we are collecting is concrete and overwhelming,”
Marzuki Darusman, former Indonesian Attorney-General and chair of the
Fact-Finding Mission said when delivering the group’s interim oral report to
the UN Human Rights Council.
“It points at human
rights violations of the most serious kind, in all likelihood amounting to
crimes under international law.”
Darusman was joined
by fellow experts Radhika Coomaraswamy of Sri Lanka and Chris Sidoti of
Australia.
The report was based
on information gathered from a series of missions to Bangladesh, Malaysia and
Thailand, where teams of investigators conducted over 600 in-depth interviews
with victims and witnesses of reported human rights violations and abuses.
The group detailed
“gross human rights violations,” including indiscriminate shooting at fleeing
villagers, burning of elderly and children alive in their homes, hacking people
to death, and sexual violence towards women and girls.
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“We have numerous
accounts of children and babies who were killed, boys arrested, and girls
raped.”
While much of the
attention of the Rohingya crisis has focused on Rakhine State, where some
700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled across the border to neighbouring
Bangladesh, the research also looked at Kachin and Shan State.
The report expressed
concern over a spike in reported human rights violations in the region that
have resulted in significant displacement of population, further exacerbating a
“longstanding humanitarian crisis.”
 |
| Ms Yanghee Lee |
UN Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee also spoke of her experience
investigating the unfolding crisis. She said “crimes under international law”
have been committed against the Rohingya.
According to The
Guardian, Lee also called for the creation of an independent body to
investigate and gather evidence of human rights violations. This could then be
used to place those “individuals who gave the orders and carried out violations
against individuals and entire ethnic and religious groups” on trial for their
crimes.
The UN has been
denied access to Rakhine since late last year, so both Lee and the fact-finding
mission have been forced to conduct their investigations in Cox’s Bazaar in
Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are now living in refugee
camps.