Myanmar's
military commanders should be financially "isolated" and brought to
trial to face charges of war crimes and genocide against the Rohingya minority,
UN investigators said Tuesday.
The
United Nations fact-finding mission on the situation in Myanmar called on the
international community to cut off all financial and other support to the country's
military.
Some
740,000 Rohingya refugees fled a military crackdown in August 2017 to cross
into Bangladesh where 300,000 members of the persecuted Muslim minority were
already in camps.
Marzuki
Darusman, who heads the fact-finding mission which just concluded a 10-day
visit to surrounding countries, said drastic measures were needed since Myanmar
so far had done little to resolve the egregious rights situation in the country.
Read
also: OHCHR | UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar
urges financial isolation of Myanmar military https://shar.es/a0W5bV
Many
Rohingya refugees who fled said there had been mass rapes and slaughters in the
villages, and in a report published last September, the fact-finding mission
said there were reasonable grounds to believe the atrocities amounted to
"genocide".
The
investigators lamented Tuesday that "both military and civilian sides of
Myanmar's government persistently deny the facts and disclaim any
responsibility for crimes under international law.
"Following
this violence, Myanmar authorities have leveled empty Rohingya villages with
bulldozers, effectively destroying criminal evidence, while making no
substantive progress in resolving the ethnic animosities that have helped fuel
the crisis," they said.
The
UN fact-finding mission was not granted access to Myanmar itself, but during
their visit to Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, the investigators
met exiled representatives from the Chin, Kachin, Shan and Rakhine ethnic
communities.
"Meeting
with these different ethnic communities only underscored our findings that the
Tatmadaw (the Myanmar military) has over time committed similar atrocities
against many of the ethnic groups living within the borders of Myanmar,"
expert Radhika Coomaraswamy said in the statement.
Another
member of the team, Christopher Sidoti, said the investigators so far had
"seen no evidence that the Myanmar government is acting in good faith to
resolve the crisis or facilitate the safe return of refugees.
"The
situation demands an increase in international pressure," he said.
"Due
to the gravity of the past and continuing violations, attention must be given
to the political, economic and financial ties of the Myanmar military - to
identify who and what should be targeted so we can cut off the money supply as
a means of increasing the pressure and reducing the violence," he added.
The
fact-finding mission is due to present its final report to the UN Human Rights
Council in Geneva next September and will hand over its findings to a panel
tasked with preparing criminal indictments.
Also read:
Report
of Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar
Read
more: https://lnkd.in/gc6MVeE
Report
of the detailed findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission
on Myanmar - A/HRC/39/CRP.2
Released on 18 Sept 2018, PDF: https://lnkd.in/gvqhdUV