Press TV
Various
human rights activists and observers have roundly denounced Myanmar’s decision
to appoint a commission of inquiry into widespread human rights abuses
perpetrated with the state’s own backing and with the military’s direct
participation against the Rohingya Muslim community.
The Myanmarese
government said on Monday that it had established a new “independent”
commission to investigate the “allegations” of human rights abuses in Rakhine
State — where the Rohingya had been primarily located — despite the mountain of
evidence indicating “systematic ethnic cleansing” against the minority Muslims.
Rakhine first came
under a military crackdown in late 2016, when the government laid siege to the
state and blocked media access. Nevertheless, reports slowly began to emerge of
horrific violence committed against the Muslim community. Accounts of killings,
beheadings, arson attacks, and rapes by Myanmarese government soldiers and
Buddhist mobs leaked out as many Rohingya Muslims began to flee in August last
year.
Tens of thousands of
the Muslims are now living in crowded, squalid camps in neighboring Bangladesh,
where international medics have verified that wounds on the bodies of the
Muslim survivors of the violence correspond with their accounts of brutal
violence, including, in some cases, rape with sharp objects.
The Myanmarese
government and military have denied almost all allegations of violence.
The government has
previously established other inquiries — only to conclude that no violations
had taken place.
The new body
includes, among others, senior adviser to Myanmar’s president, Aung Tun Thet;
the former chair of Myanmar’s constitutional tribunal U Mya Thein; former
Philippine deputy foreign minister Rosario Manalo; and Japan’s former UN
representative Kenzo Oshima.
The government did
not provide further information, including about the commission’s powers or the
time frame it has been given to complete a potential report.
‘A rude
gesture’ - ‘a distraction’ - ‘emboldening perpetrators’
Sean Bain, a legal
adviser to the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), has criticized the
appointments.
Such commissions, he
wrote on Twitter, “tend to be ad hoc, rarely if ever lead to prosecution &
fail to provide redress. Impunity results, undermining justice &
emboldening perpetrators.”
Myanmar-based
analyst David Mathieson also condemned the move, calling it a “political
gimmick.”
“Given the weight of
evidence collected by Amnesty International, the UN and the media, this CoI
(Commission of Inquiry) is tantamount to a rude gesture, not a genuine
inquiry,” he said, adding that the move could only “collide with a military
covering up ethnic cleansing.”
Human Rights Watch
Myanmar researcher Rich Weir said the country would use the new body as
“distractions and shields from criticism and pressure,” as it did with the
previous such inquiries.
A coordinator for
the London-based Free Rohingya Coalition, Nay San Lwin, said Myanmar had been
forming inquiry, investigation, and advisory commissions since 2012, none of
which “found any solution for the Rohingya, but mostly advocated for the
government and military.”
He said the former
Advisory Commission on Rakhine, led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan,
“only advised.”
The government did
not even implement the recommendations made by that commission, he said.
Other state-run
commissions also claimed the military had not committed any crimes against the
Rohingya people, Lwin said.
One of the members
of the new commission, Aung Tun Thet, has already denied ethnic cleansing
charges. This is while the United Nations has effectively confirmed such
cleansing has occurred. The UN has said “acts of genocide” have also most
likely been perpetrated against the Rohingya people.
The Rohingya, who
have lived in Myanmar for generations, are denied citizenship there and are
branded illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, which likewise denies them
citizenship but has been sheltering them on humanitarian grounds.