The UN establishes elements of intentional genocide against Rohingya in Burma

[Askor lml]

It also considers that those responsible for the Armed Forces should be investigated and tried by an international tribunal.

 

The UN has established that there are elements of "intentional genocide" in the military operation carried out a year ago in the Burmese state of Rakáin against the Rohinyá minority and that those responsible for the Armed Forces must be investigated and tried by an international tribunal.

Factors that point to this intentionality include, in the opinion of the United Nations International Independent Mission, the "broader oppressive context and rhetoric of hatred" against the Muslim minority Rohinyá, as well as "specific statements" of direct commanders and authors.

The head of the armed forces or "Tatmadaw", General Min Aung Hlaing, said during the most intense phase of the military offensive against the Rohingya a year ago in Rakáin that the problem of that ethnic minority had become "a job without finishing "and that his Government took a lot of interest in" solving it ".

It also points out the Mission as elements that can amount to intentional genocide excluding policies towards the Rohingya, among other things. On August 25, 2017 there was an attack by insurgents of the Rohinyá de Arakan Salvation Army (ARSA), against police and military posts in the area that caused more than a hundred deaths, and which triggered a new military campaign in that region from which some 725,000 rohinyas have fled in the last year to neighboring Bangladesh.

List of alleged perpetrators

The experts, who have also established war crimes and crimes against humanity in Rakáin and the states of Kachin and Shan, have drawn up a list of alleged perpetrators of the atrocities committed against the Rohingya.

They point to Min Aung Hlaing, and his number two, Soe Win; the commander of the Office of Special Operations-3, Lieutenant General Aung Kyaw Zaw; and the head of the Military Command of the Western Region, General Maung Maung Soe, among others.

Experts urge the UN Security Council to refer the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or create an international criminal tribunal "ad hoc" to judge the facts.