UN panel’s findings are “grim”: Official UN report released on Myanmar’s Rohingya genocide

Yanghee Lee, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar/Image: HRW

United Nations investigators have released public statements where they call for the prosecution of military officials of Myanmar of committing crimes against humanity. This accusation is in the light of the grave human right violations Myanmar’s military has been called out for committing mass killings and rapes of Rohingya Muslims in the country. These actions have been deemed to be inspired by genocidal intent.

It is for the first time in history that the United Nations openly accused Myanmar of crimes against humanity, by releasing an official report on the same. This move is expected to isolate Myanmar and strain their diplomatic relations further in the coming months.

Investigators into the matter called upon the United Nations Security Council to sanction an arms embargo on Myanmar and also establish an ad hoc tribunal to try the accused officials and eventually refer them to the International Criminal Court.

The report is also expected to spark a change in the way social media sites handle hate speech in regions where they have limited direct presence but their platforms are used extensively and can exert a lot of influence. This is the reason Facebook has been subject to a lot of criticism, as the platform was used to a large extent in Myanmar to incite hatred and violence against innocent individuals.

United Nations’ investigators also criticized Myanmar’s leader, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi, for failing to defend innocent civilians from genocidal crimes and letting her government incite violence resulting in what can be now classified as war crimes. The findings were termed to be “grim” by the chairman of the investigating panel. The government of Myanmar was also sent a copy of the report as per standard UN protocol.

*Rayan Bhattacharya is a Research Intern at The Kootneeti