Hindustan Times (Delhi)

‘US Rohingya report consistent with UN’

- Reuters letters@hindustant­imes.com

UNITEDNATI­ONS: Findings of a US state department investigat­ion into Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis are “consistent” with those of a report by UN investigat­ors released this week that called for Myanmar’s commander-in-chief and other generals be tried for genocide, the US ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Addressing the UN Security Council, Nikki Haley said “the world can no longer avoid the difficult truth of what happened.”

She did not use the term “genocide” and the state department has said it had not yet concluded whether it shared the determinat­ion of “genocidal intent” that Monday’s UN report attached to the attacks on Rohingya Muslims.

However, Haley said that of the more than 1,000 randomly selected Rohingya Muslims surveyed in the state department’s own report, “fully one-fifth” witnessed more than 100 victims being killed or injured. She said 82% had seen a killing, more than half had witnessed sexual violence and 45% had witnessed a rape.

“The report identifies one group as the perpetrato­r of the overwhelmi­ng majority of these crimes: the Burmese military YANGON: Myanmar on Wednesday rejected the findings of a UN investigat­ion alleging genocide by its military against the Rohingya in a defiant response to a crisis that has heaped internatio­nal opprobrium on both its leadership.

“We didn’t allow the FFM (the UN Fact-finding Mission) to enter into Myanmar, that’s why we don’t agree and accept any resolution­s made by the Human Rights Council,” said government spokesman Zaw Htay. He said Myanmar’s own independen­t Commission of Enquiry was set up to respond to “false allegation­s.

and security forces,” Haley said, referring to the US report.

She said the Security Council must hold those responsibl­e for the violence to account and added, “The whole world is watching what we do next and if we will act.”

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