Myanmar ‘unwilling’ to probe Rohingya abuses
YANGON (AFP) — Myanmar is “unable and unwilling” to investigate its abuses against Rohingya Muslims, a UN rights envoy has said, bolstering calls for the country’s generals to be haled before an international court.
A UN fact-finding mission has called for Myanmar’s top brass to be investigated for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes over a brutal crackdown against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state that forced more than 720,000 of the beleaguered minority to flee the country to Bangladesh.
Myanmar has dismissed the allegations, slamming the UN body as biased, and the government has set up its own committee to investigate the crimes.
But UN special rapporteur to Myanmar Yanghee Lee — who has been barred from entering the country since December — said the government has shown little capacity for an unbiased probe into the violence, saying it has taken “limited and insufficient steps.”
In her conclusions, she recommended the UN should “refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court immediately.”
The northern part of Rakhine has been on lockdown since the violence broke out last August, with journalists and observers only allowed to visit on short, chaperoned trips.
UN investigators — who wrote the explosive factfinding report — were not allowed into the country while Lee has been barred from entering Myanmar since December for her sharp criticisms of the government’s treatment of the Rohingya.
Lee said she had asked India for permission to meet Rohingya refugees there but received no response from Delhi. Myanmar’s de facto leader Suu Kyi — once lionized by the international community as a democracy icon — has seen a sharp fall from grace following her refusal to speak out against the military.