UN fact-finding mission approved

GENEVA: The United Nationsbacked Human Rights Council yesterday approved a resolution by consensus to “dispatch urgently ” an international factfinding mission to Myanmar to probe alleged abuses by military and security forces, particularly against the Rohingya.

In a move bound to put pressure on State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, the 47-member body threw its weight behind existing efforts to investigate alleged rights abuses such as torture, rape, arbitrary killings and forced displacement of the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

Zaw Htay, a presidential spokesman, said Myanmar “cannot accept” the council’s decision.

“What the UN Human Rights Council did to us is totally not fair and not right under international practices,” Htay said by phone, citing a domestic investigation. “They should have waited and watched the correspondent country’s investigation, and the result coming out from that,” and only then offer possible criticism of its work, he added.

Last week, a commission chaired by former UN secretarygeneral Kofi Annan, created at the behest of Suu Kyi, presented recommendations to the government about long-term solutions to tensions in Rakhine state.

The recommendations included allowing journalists free access to the western part of the country.