The UN Human Rights Council voted Thursday to set up a
panel to prepare criminal indictments over atrocities committed in Myanmar,
amid allegations of genocide against the Rohingya minority.
The top UN rights body voted to "establish an
ongoing independent mechanism to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse
evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of
international law committed in Myanmar since 2011."
The text, collaboration between the European Union and
the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, says the panel will be responsible for
preparing "files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent
criminal proceedings... in national, regional or international courts or
tribunals."
The text, collaboration between the European Union and
the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, says the panel will be responsible for
preparing "files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent
criminal proceedings... in national, regional or international courts or
tribunals."
Thirty-five of the council's 47 members voted in favour
of the resolution while only three -- China, the Philippines and Burundi --
voted against.
The remainder either abstained or refrained from casting
a vote.
Read also HRW: Myanmar: UN Rights Council
Backs Atrocity Victims https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/27/myanmar-un-rights-council-backs-atrocity-victims
Read here: Amnesty International UK’s Press
releases https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/myanmar-un-resolution-over-accountability-important-step-forward
The text was presented after a damning report was
released to the council earlier this month, outlining in meticulous and searing
detail atrocities against the Rohingya, who fled a violent military campaign
that started in August last year.
The 444-page report by a UN fact-finding mission
concluded there was enough evidence to merit investigation and prosecution of
Myanmar's army chief and five other top military commanders for crimes against
humanity and genocide against the Rohingya.
Troops, sometimes aided by ethnic Rakhine mobs, committed
murder, rape, arson and torture, using unfathomable levels of violence and with
a total disregard for human life, investigators concluded.
More than 700,000 of the stateless Muslim minority took
refuge in Bangladesh, where they remain -- fearful of returning to mainly
Buddhist Myanmar despite a repatriation deal between the two countries.
The military has denied nearly all wrongdoing, justifying
its crackdown as a legitimate means of rooting out Rohingya militants.
The UN and rights groups meanwhile say the operations
were vastly disproportionate and a troop build-up in the area occurred before
insurgents attacked police posts in August 2017.
Further pressuring Myanmar, the International Criminal
Court (ICC) in The Hague independently ruled that it had jurisdiction to open a
preliminary investigation, even though the country has not signed the treaty
underpinning the court.
Thursday's text took note of the ICC ruling, and
requested "the mechanism to cooperate closely with any of its future
investigations pertaining to human rights in Myanmar."
The resolution also said the mandate of the UN
fact-finding mission should be extended until the new mechanism is operational.
Thursday's decision marks the first time the Human Rights
Council has itself opted to create such a mechanism.
A similar panel was created in late 2016 to build cases
for the prosecution of war crimes in Syria, but it was set up following a vote
in the General Assembly in New York.
Source: AFP