Myanmar hit with genocide charge
The Telegraph India
August 28, 2018
Myanmar's army commander-in-chief and five other generals should face trial in an international court for genocide against Rohingya Muslims and for crimes against humanity, UN investigators said on Monday after a year-long inquiry.
The panel levelled the most serious charges - "genocide" and "genocidal intent" - over the ferocious campaign unleashed by the Buddhist-majority security forces against Rohingya Muslims a year ago. That campaign, in the state of Rakhine, sent more than 700,000 fleeing across the border to Bangladesh. At least 40,000 have escaped to India, too.
The UN defines genocide as acts meant to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in whole or in part. The designation is rare but has been used in Bosnia, Rwanda and Sudan.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief, is one of six generals named as priority subjects for investigation and prosecution in a report detailing military campaigns involving atrocities that "undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law".
The UN panel - known as the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar - blamed the country's de facto civilian leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, for failing to use her "moral authority" to protect civilians.
Her government "contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes" by letting hate speech thrive, destroying documents and failing to shield minorities from crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The report also criticised Facebook for allowing its network to be used to incite violence and hatred. Facebook responded on Monday by announcing that it was blocking 20 Myanmar officials and organisations. Facebook's action means an essential blackout of the military's main channel of public communication.
"There is sufficient information to warrant the investigation and prosecution of senior officials in the Tatmadaw (military) chain of command, so that a competent court can determine their liability for genocide...," said the three-member UN panel.
The report said the Security Council should refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or set up an international tribunal like those that investigated genocide and atrocities in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. The Security Council should also impose an arms embargo on Myanmar, it added.
The panel said estimates of 10,000 deaths in the Rakhine campaign were conservative and cited harrowing witness accounts of mass killings, gang rapes of women and young girls and the wholesale destruction of villages by the military.
Over the weekend, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing returned from Russia, where he shopped for weapons. Both Russia and China have shielded Myanmar from formal criticism from the Security Council.
The UN panel - led by Marzuki Darusman, a former Indonesian attorney-general - will present its report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva next month.
Myanmar refused access and cooperation to the investigation, which based its report on 875 interviews and documents compiled in numerous field missions to Bangladesh and neighbouring countries. "Only verified and corroborated information was relied upon," it said.
The list of generals includes Brigadier-General Aung Aung, commander of the 33rd Light Infantry Division, which oversaw operations in the coastal village of Inn Din where 10 Rohingya captive boys and men were killed. That massacre was uncovered by two Reuters journalists - Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28 - who were arrested and are being tried on charges of violating Myanmar's Official Secrets Act.
Other generals named in the report included army deputy commander-in-chief Vice Senior-General Soe Win; the commander of the Bureau of Special Operations-3, Lieutenant General Aung Kyaw Zaw; the commander of Western Regional Military Command, Major General Maung Maung Soe; and the commander of 99th Light Infantry Division, Brigadier-General Than Oo.
Myanmar had earlier rejected allegations of widespread atrocities, asserting that its security forces were simply responding to attacks by Rohingya militants. But the UN report said the military action was "grossly disproportionate to actual security threats".
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