UNB, Dhaka :
Human Rights Watch HRW has said the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should immediately refer the situation in Myanmar, including the widespread and systematic abuses against ethnic Rohingya, to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
During the first week of May, senior diplomats from the 15-member Security Council visited refugee camps in Bangladesh to see the firsthand situation of more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar military abuses since August 2017, adding to an estimated 200,000 Rohingya refugees who fled previous violence. The diplomats pledged to take action on their return to New York. British Ambassador Karen Pierce said all council members considered the Rohingya issue to be “one of the most significant human rights cases that we have ever faced in the last decade and that something needs to be done.” “Now that the Security Council has heard directly from Rohingya refugees about the horrors inflicted by Myanmar’s army… the need to hold those responsible to account should be clear,” said Param-Preet Singh, associate international justice director on Tuesday.
“Myanmar’s repeated and implausible denials of responsibility for atrocities and its longstanding culture of impunity mean that the International Criminal Court is the only real hope for victims to see justice.”
During their four-day visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh, the council members met humanitarian agencies, civil society groups, parliamentarians, and military and government officials, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Myanmar’s de-facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and Myanmar military commander-in-chief Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. While acknowledging a possible ICC referral, UK Ambassador Pierce told reporters that Aung San Suu Kyi assured the council members that if evidence of violations was provided to her, the Myanmar authorities would undertake a “proper investigation.”
However, the Myanmar government has long been provided with evidence by Human Rights Watch and other international monitors
and has taken no genuine action to impartially investigate the full range of abuses committed against the Rohingya. For more than a year, the Myanmar government refused to allow access to the UN Fact-Finding Mission, created by the Human Rights Council (HRC) to “establish the facts and circumstances” of alleged security force violations. It also barred Yanghee Lee, the UN-appointed human rights expert on Myanmar, from entering the country after she publicly reported on military abuses.
The government and military have dismissed voluminous reports from the UN, human rights groups, and the media on killings, rape, and burnings of Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine State. In November, an army “investigation team” said that at least 376 “terrorists” were killed during fighting but found “no deaths of innocent people.”
While there has been no civilian-led investigation into the post-August 2017 violence, the National Investigation Commission on Rakhine State, established to investigate the violence against the Rohingya in October and November 2016, and headed by Vice President Myint Swe, concluded contrary to the evidence that there was “no possibility of crimes against humanity, no evidence of ethnic cleansing, as per UN accusations.”
Myanmar authorities have convicted soldiers in only one case in Rakhine State for abuses committed after August 25, sentencing seven soldiers in April to 10 years in prison for their role in the massacre of 10 Rohingya in Inn Din village.
Two Reuters journalists who investigated the massacre were detained and face up to 14 years’ imprisonment under the Official Secrets Act. “By rejecting out of hand detailed accounts of atrocities, Myanmar’s government has shown it has zero intention of addressing the terrible crimes against the Rohingya. Security Council members should not repeat empty promises by government officials that they will investigate abuses.
Human Rights Watch HRW has said the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should immediately refer the situation in Myanmar, including the widespread and systematic abuses against ethnic Rohingya, to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
During the first week of May, senior diplomats from the 15-member Security Council visited refugee camps in Bangladesh to see the firsthand situation of more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar military abuses since August 2017, adding to an estimated 200,000 Rohingya refugees who fled previous violence. The diplomats pledged to take action on their return to New York. British Ambassador Karen Pierce said all council members considered the Rohingya issue to be “one of the most significant human rights cases that we have ever faced in the last decade and that something needs to be done.” “Now that the Security Council has heard directly from Rohingya refugees about the horrors inflicted by Myanmar’s army… the need to hold those responsible to account should be clear,” said Param-Preet Singh, associate international justice director on Tuesday.
“Myanmar’s repeated and implausible denials of responsibility for atrocities and its longstanding culture of impunity mean that the International Criminal Court is the only real hope for victims to see justice.”
During their four-day visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh, the council members met humanitarian agencies, civil society groups, parliamentarians, and military and government officials, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Myanmar’s de-facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and Myanmar military commander-in-chief Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. While acknowledging a possible ICC referral, UK Ambassador Pierce told reporters that Aung San Suu Kyi assured the council members that if evidence of violations was provided to her, the Myanmar authorities would undertake a “proper investigation.”
However, the Myanmar government has long been provided with evidence by Human Rights Watch and other international monitors
and has taken no genuine action to impartially investigate the full range of abuses committed against the Rohingya. For more than a year, the Myanmar government refused to allow access to the UN Fact-Finding Mission, created by the Human Rights Council (HRC) to “establish the facts and circumstances” of alleged security force violations. It also barred Yanghee Lee, the UN-appointed human rights expert on Myanmar, from entering the country after she publicly reported on military abuses.
The government and military have dismissed voluminous reports from the UN, human rights groups, and the media on killings, rape, and burnings of Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine State. In November, an army “investigation team” said that at least 376 “terrorists” were killed during fighting but found “no deaths of innocent people.”
While there has been no civilian-led investigation into the post-August 2017 violence, the National Investigation Commission on Rakhine State, established to investigate the violence against the Rohingya in October and November 2016, and headed by Vice President Myint Swe, concluded contrary to the evidence that there was “no possibility of crimes against humanity, no evidence of ethnic cleansing, as per UN accusations.”
Myanmar authorities have convicted soldiers in only one case in Rakhine State for abuses committed after August 25, sentencing seven soldiers in April to 10 years in prison for their role in the massacre of 10 Rohingya in Inn Din village.
Two Reuters journalists who investigated the massacre were detained and face up to 14 years’ imprisonment under the Official Secrets Act. “By rejecting out of hand detailed accounts of atrocities, Myanmar’s government has shown it has zero intention of addressing the terrible crimes against the Rohingya. Security Council members should not repeat empty promises by government officials that they will investigate abuses.
