Tribunal finds Myanmar guilty of genocide
KUALA LUMPUR: The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal’s (PPT) yesterday found Myanmar guilty of genocide against the Kachin people and other Muslim groups, including the Rohingya.
In a unanimous decision, former president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Daniel Feierstein, who headed a seven-member panel, ruled the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt.
“On the strength of the evidence presented, the tribunal reached the consensus ruling that the State of Myanmar has the intent to commit genocide against the Kachin people and the other Muslim groups. Further, the State of Myanmar is guilty of the crime of genocide against the Rohingya group,” said Feierstein.
Reading out the judgment, Feierstein said all these unpunished crimes had been, and were currently committed by the Burmese Army and by the regime in power in Myanmar who seemed to be part of a plan.
“(with intention) … to deny every expression of autonomy and self-government of the people of Kachin state and, more generally, to humiliate and to destroy the ethnic and cultural identity of minorities living in Burma,” he said.
The panel arrived at the decision after hearing and analysing arguments by the prosecution, views of expert witnesses and victim’s testimonies throughout a five-day trial ended yesterday at the Universiti Malaya’s Faculty of Law here.
Findings of the tribunal will be communicated to various United Nations human rights bodies, including its Human Rights Council in Geneva and the Office of the Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide in New York.
The other six judges comprised Zulaiha Ismail (Malaysia), Helen Jarvis (Cambodia-Australia), Gill H. Boehringer (Australia), Nursyahbani Katjasungkana (Indonesia), Shadi Sadr (Iran) and Nello Rossi (Italy).
PPT is an international opinion tribunal founded in Bologna, Italy, in 1979.
Since its establishment, the tribunal has held 43 sessions on numerous cases of human and people’s rights violations.
The tribunal also made 17 recommendations following the judgment yesterday.
Among the recommendations announced was an immediate ceasefire package and de-militarisation with all armed groups in Rakhine State and the Myanmar military, including a de-militarised zone along the border in Northern region of Rakhine state.
It also called on Myanmar to allow the UN Human Rights Council to conduct a fact-finding mission to probe into the human rights violations against its Muslim population, including the Rohingya.
It said all discriminatory laws and policies should be repealed to extend full citizenship to the Rohingya and other ethnic groups.
It also urged Bangladesh and Asean nations to allow Rohingya refugees in their countries until they are granted full citizenship rights in Myanmar. Bernama