Myanmar generals had 'genocidal intent' against Rohingya, must face justice - U.N.

[webfact]

Myanmar generals had 'genocidal intent' against Rohingya, must face justice - U.N.

By Stephanie Nebehay

 

FILE PHOTO: Aerial view of a burnt Rohingya village near Maungdaw, in the north of Rakhine State, Myanmar, September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun/File Photo

 

GENEVA (Reuters) - Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and the commander-in-chief and five generals should be prosecuted for orchestrating the gravest crimes under law, U.N. investigators said on Monday.

 

The civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi has allowed hate speech to thrive, destroyed documents and failed to protect minorities from crimes against humanity and war crimes by the army in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states, they said in a report.

In doing so, it "contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes", the report said.

 

A year ago, government troops led a brutal crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state in response to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on 30 Myanmar police posts and a military base.

 

Some 700,000 Rohingya fled the crackdown and most are now living in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.

 

The U.N. report said the military action, which included the scorching of villages, was "grossly disproportionate to actual security threats".

 

The United Nations defines genocide as acts meant to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in whole or in part. Such a designation is rare under international law, but has been used in countries including Bosnia and Sudan and in the Islamic State campaign against the Yazidi communities in Iraq and Syria.

 

"The crimes in Rakhine State, and the manner in which they were perpetrated, are similar in nature, gravity and scope to those that have allowed genocidal intent to be established in other contexts," said the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.

 

In the final 20-page report, it said: "There is sufficient information to warrant the investigation and prosecution of senior officials in the Tatmadaw (army) chain of command, so that a competent court can determine their liability for genocide in relation to the situation in Rakhine state."

 

The Myanmar government, which was sent an advance copy of the U.N. report in line with standard practice, has not commented.

 

Contacted by phone, Myanmar military spokesman Major General Tun Tun Nyi said he could not immediately comment.

 

The U.N. panel, led by former Indonesian attorney-general Marzuki Darusman, named the Myanmar army's commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and five other generals who should face justice.

 

They included Brigadier-General Aung Aung, commander of the 33rd Light Infantry Division, which oversaw operations in the coastal village of Inn Din where 10 Rohingya captive boys and men were killed.

 

Reuters was unable to contact Min Aung Hlaing or Aung Aung on Monday.

 

The massacre was uncovered by two Reuters journalists - Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28 - who were arrested as a result last December and are being tried on charges of violating the country's Official Secrets Act. The court had been due to deliver its verdict on Monday, but at a brief hearing earlier the proceedings were postponed until Sept. 3.

 

In April, seven soldiers were sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labour for participating in the massacre.

 

The report said Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, "has not used her de facto position as Head of Government, nor her moral authority, to stem or prevent the unfolding events, or seek alternative avenues to meet a responsibility to protect the civilian population".

 

Suu Kyi's spokesman, Zaw Htay, could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.

 

The top U.N. human rights official Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has called the crackdown against the Rohingya a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

 

Suu Kyi's government has rejected most allegations of atrocities made against the security forces by refugees. It has built transit centres to receive Rohingya returnees to western Rakhine state, but U.N. aid agencies say that it is not yet safe for them to return.

 

CALL FOR INDIVIDUAL SANCTIONS

The U.N. Security Council should ensure all perpetrators are held to account, preferably by referring Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or by creating an ad hoc tribunal, the investigators said.

 

The Security Council should "adopt targeted individual sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against those who appear most responsible for serious crimes under international law" and impose an arms embargo on Myanmar, they said.

 

The four other generals the U.N. panel said should be prosecuted were named as the army deputy commander-in-chief, Vice Senior-General Soe Win; the commander of the Bureau of Special Operations-3, Lieutenant-General Aung Kyaw Zaw; the commander of Western Regional Military Command, Major-General Maung Maung Soe; and the commander of 99th Light Infantry Division, Brigadier-General Than Oo.

 

Reuters was not able to contact those four generals on Monday.

 

The panel, set up last year, interviewed 875 victims and witnesses in Bangladesh and other countries, and analysed documents, videos, photographs and satellite images.

 

Decades of state-sponsored stigmatisation against Rohingya had resulted in "institutionalised oppression from birth to death", the report said.

 

The Rohingya, who regard themselves as native to Rakhine state, are widely considered as interlopers by Myanmar's Buddhist majority and are denied citizenship.

 

"The Tatmadaw acts with complete impunity and has never been held accountable. Its standard response is to deny, dismiss and obstruct," the U.N. report said.

 

The report also criticised Facebook's response to allegations, including by members of the same U.N. panel in March, that the social media giant had been used to incite violence and hatred against the Rohingyas.

 

"Although improved in recent months, Facebook's response has been slow and ineffective. The extent to which Facebook posts and messages have led to real-world discrimination and violence must be independently and thoroughly examined," it said.

 

Facebook declined to comment in an emailed statement, saying it had not yet seen the report.

 

Facebook said in a statement issued 10 days ago following a Reuters investigative report into its failure to combat hate speech against the Rohingya and other Muslims that it had been "too slow" to address the problem in Myanmar and was acting to remedy the situation by hiring more Burmese speakers and investing in technology to identify problematic content.

 

International courts have a mixed record on prosecutions for genocide.

 

In 2008, a U.N. court sentenced former army colonel Theoneste Bagosora, accused of masterminding the slaughter of 800,000 people in Rwanda in 1994, to life in prison on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. His sentence was later cut to 35 years on appeal.

 

In 2016, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was convicted by U.N. judges of genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. He is appealing against the conviction.

 

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Sudan President Omar al-Bashir in 2009 and 2010 over his alleged role in war crimes including genocide in Sudan’s breakaway Darfur province in 2003. He remains in office.

 

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Adrian Croft)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-08-27

[PJPom]

The phrase “ toothless tiger “ springs to mind, all these reports but very little action.

[cooked]

.. and again, no mention of the atrocities carried out by ARSA and their Rohingya militia. I'll support an investigation into war crimes but not just war crimes committed by one side.

Another strange coincidence: the Facebook pages of 20 Myanmar generals were taken off on the same day as this announcement was made. "To prevent falsehoods and lies".

[BMW Overlander]

2 hours ago, cooked said:

.. and again, no mention of the atrocities carried out by ARSA and their Rohingya militia. I'll support an investigation into war crimes but not just war crimes committed by one side.

Another strange coincidence: the Facebook pages of 20 Myanmar generals were taken off on the same day as this announcement was made. "To prevent falsehoods and lies".

 

Yes they killed 4 soldiers but I guess in your mind that justifies mass rape, killings of elderly, women and children, burning of villages, ethnic cleansing etc. Did you even notice the word "Genocide" in headline, can you even comprehend what it means? Better stick to day to day meaningless conversation with your primitive Isan family, they for sure value your "expert opinion".

[yellowboat]

11 hours ago, PJPom said:

The phrase “ toothless tiger “ springs to mind, all these reports but very little action.

If it leads to actions from the EU and Congress such as travel bands, boycotts or other sanctions, it will be for something.  I am not going back to Burma anytime soon and I will never go back to Kho Tao.

[Esso49]

Unfortunately all talk and no action.  Sure it makes out the UN is doing something but dig through previous years media reports and there is a different story to tell about the UN in Burma.   Unfortunately the UN now appears to be more of a talking shop than a preventative peace keeping force. 

[cooked]

22 minutes ago, BMW Overlander said:

 

Yes they killed 4 soldiers but I guess in your mind that justifies mass rape, killings of elderly, women and children, burning of villages, ethnic cleansing etc. Did you even notice the word "Genocide" in headline, can you even comprehend what it means? Better stick to day to day meaningless conversation with your primitive Isan family, they for sure value your "expert opinion".

Four soldiers. Actually 12 soldiers and customs officials. Obviously you didn't read about the 95 Hindu villagers killed by ARSA + Rohingya militia from the next village. There are MANY other cases, and they started the killings well before 25 August 2017. Blocking roads, killing individuals and groups, large scale insurrections in Maungdaw and other townships shortly after Friday prayers on June 8 2012 was the start and they didn't stop until this last massive (brutal) expulsion by the army.

You are quoting the headlines, which must be true of course. The UN invented their own definition og "genocide" and it no longer means mass killings leading to extinction of a race or tribe. It was an ethnic cleansing of a very troublesome, arrogant group of people that had been permitted to remain illegally even though they did refuse to integrate and were demanding an Islamic state. They were trying to annex the Rakhine, they said so.

Your personal remarks about me and my family don't really deserve a rational response, your only argument seems to be "it's in the news, so it must be true". It IS true, but they don't tell the other side of the story at all.

If I thought you were capable of comprehension I would give you a reading list.

 

[yellowboat]

14 minutes ago, Esso49 said:

Unfortunately all talk and no action.  Sure it makes out the UN is doing something but dig through previous years media reports and there is a different story to tell about the UN in Burma.   Unfortunately the UN now appears to be more of a talking shop than a preventative peace keeping force. 

As a talking shop, it can be historical at times.  Was there attending a symposium.  This woman stands up to ask a question that went something like this:  Your excellency, given that you are fluent in seven languages, posses doctorates from two celebrated universities, have written numerous awarding winning articles about the cross breeding of cats, what is your opinion on .....    To this day, I cannot remember that woman's question, just remember all the apple polishing that lead up to it.  The UN workers I met during my time in Thailand were either just ladder climbers, thought they walked on water, or occasionally, were really good people who tried to help.  

[connda]

The UN seems very selective about whom they charge with genocide in a world where, if you are on the 'right side', then your genocidal actions are overlooked.  It's disingenuous. 

[IAMHERE]

Better kill all them before you face justice. Im just saying.

[cooked]

2 hours ago, connda said:

The UN seems very selective about whom they charge with genocide in a world where, if you are on the 'right side', then your genocidal actions are overlooked.  It's disingenuous. 

They were inactive despite many warnings from both sides, as the were in Ruanda, Bosnia, Darfur ... whatever happened and whoever is responsible, they tend to take the side of the Islamists.

[spidermike007]

2 hours ago, cooked said:

Four soldiers. Actually 12 soldiers and customs officials. Obviously you didn't read about the 95 Hindu villagers killed by ARSA + Rohingya militia from the next village. There are MANY other cases, and they started the killings well before 25 August 2017. Blocking roads, killing individuals and groups, large scale insurrections in Maungdaw and other townships shortly after Friday prayers on June 8 2012 was the start and they didn't stop until this last massive (brutal) expulsion by the army.

You are quoting the headlines, which must be true of course. The UN invented their own definition og "genocide" and it no longer means mass killings leading to extinction of a race or tribe. It was an ethnic cleansing of a very troublesome, arrogant group of people that had been permitted to remain illegally even though they did refuse to integrate and were demanding an Islamic state. They were trying to annex the Rakhine, they said so.

Your personal remarks about me and my family don't really deserve a rational response, your only argument seems to be "it's in the news, so it must be true". It IS true, but they don't tell the other side of the story at all.

If I thought you were capable of comprehension I would give you a reading list.

 

 

And what was the genesis of those attacks? Did they come out of nowhere? How much repression, murder, rape, and nastiness by the local government and military led to those attacks? Many of these people starting migrating from East Bangal and Arakan many centuries ago. The fact that they are Bengali speaking is part of the issue. The fact that they are Muslim is also part of the issue. Historically, they have enjoyed equal rights, and were treated reasonably well. It was only in 1982, when the Junta failed to recognize them as an ethnic group, that their problems really started. You can only be oppressed for so long, before you start to fight back. I know I would.

 

One can argue that there is a vast differentiation between the killing of 12 rather monstrous soldiers and customs officials, and the genocidal murder and rape of tens of thousands, causing nearly a million to flee the country. 

 

I agree with the fact that the lack of assimilation is a problem. We are seeing that with many Muslims in Europe and the US, and elsewhere. I feel the Haqib and full face coverings should not be permitted anywhere outside countries that enforce the brutal and fabulously ignorant Sharia law. Assimilation is hugely important, if they are going to become part of a nation. But, that is another debate. 

[spidermike007]

3 hours ago, BMW Overlander said:

 

Yes they killed 4 soldiers but I guess in your mind that justifies mass rape, killings of elderly, women and children, burning of villages, ethnic cleansing etc. Did you even notice the word "Genocide" in headline, can you even comprehend what it means? Better stick to day to day meaningless conversation with your primitive Isan family, they for sure value your "expert opinion".

 

Why the judgment about his Issan Family? What is that all about? I happen to adore the people of Issan. They are warm, genuine, light hearted, most are joyful, pleasant, and helpful. Most work hard and do not complain about it. They are the best of Thailand in my opinion. Primitive? Compared to whom? Are you a missionary? A puritan?  

[cooked]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

 

And what was the genesis of those attacks? Did they come out of nowhere? How much repression, murder, rape, and nastiness by the local government and military led to those attacks? Many of these people starting migrating from East Bangal and Arakan many centuries ago. The fact that they are Bengali speaking is part of the issue. The fact that they are Muslim is also part of the issue. Historically, they have enjoyed equal rights, and were treated reasonably well. It was only in 1982, when the Junta failed to recognize them as an ethnic group, that their problems really started. You can only be oppressed for so long, before you start to fight back. I know I would.

 

One can argue that there is a vast differentiation between the killing of 12 rather monstrous soldiers and customs officials, and the genocidal murder and rape of tens of thousands, causing nearly a million to flee the country. 

 

I agree with the fact that the lack of assimilation is a problem. We are seeing that with many Muslims in Europe and the US, and elsewhere. I feel the Haqib and full face coverings should not be permitted anywhere outside countries that enforce the brutal and fabulously ignorant Sharia law. Assimilation is hugely important, if they are going to become part of a nation. But, that is another debate. 

"people starting migrating from East Bangal and Arakan many centuries ago". There were certainly Arab traders on the Rakhine coast and there are records of them being present at the court in Mrauk U. That isn't the same as these Roros that originate from the CHT where they are at present still dong their best to eliminate the non-Muslim population there.

https://moderntokyonews.com/2018/01/04/bengali-muslims-and-islamization-pity-the-indigenous-of-assam-chittagong-hill-tracts-and-rakhine/

I wrote this befote in this thread but I'll try again. After the Bangladesh /Pakistan war, over 500 000 Roros came over the border because they supported Pakistan and lost. Waves of similar magnitude have occurred since 1946, the border wasn't even fenced in then and Burma was in turmoil after independence. Whatever, these people did seem to take it as their right to roam and settle as they wished.

The things that you are now accusing the Tatmadaw of doing now (probably at least partly true) have been part of the behaviour of these people for a long time, if you consider what is happening in Europe right now, maybe you'll concede that this is quite probable.

When they WERE in a minority, things went reasonably well despite refusal to learn language and customs (compare with Europe). These people have typically 8 - 12 children per family, whereas the neighbouring Buddhists have two or three. As is usual, as soon as they became a majority in The Rakhine they started demanding and I know for a fact that most none of the non-Muslim ethnicities wants to live anywhere near them.

You seem pretty sure that the soldiers killed (and Hindus, you don't seem to be worried about them) were monstrous. . I wish I could be so sure about things I have no way of knowing anything about.,

How about: 1942, Rohingyas, members of the Indian army, armed by the British, instead of killing Japs killed an estimated 20 to 40 000 non-Muslims. Innocent women and children included, if that makes you feel any better. There have been various insurgencies since then, nothing serious but nothing to help "integrate" themselves. Now that Rakhine is exporting oil and gas to China (contract for that signed 2011, first Muslim riots started in 2012) and there are indications that even more is exploitable, everyone is suddenly very interested in the area, compare that with Syria.

Pressure from the UN is going to force Myanmar to have closer ties to China, which most of them don't want.

[spidermike007]

1 hour ago, cooked said:

"people starting migrating from East Bangal and Arakan many centuries ago". There were certainly Arab traders on the Rakhine coast and there are records of them being present at the court in Mrauk U. That isn't the same as these Roros that originate from the CHT where they are at present still dong their best to eliminate the non-Muslim population there.

https://moderntokyonews.com/2018/01/04/bengali-muslims-and-islamization-pity-the-indigenous-of-assam-chittagong-hill-tracts-and-rakhine/

I wrote this befote in this thread but I'll try again. After the Bangladesh /Pakistan war, over 500 000 Roros came over the border because they supported Pakistan and lost. Waves of similar magnitude have occurred since 1946, the border wasn't even fenced in then and Burma was in turmoil after independence. Whatever, these people did seem to take it as their right to roam and settle as they wished.

The things that you are now accusing the Tatmadaw of doing now (probably at least partly true) have been part of the behaviour of these people for a long time, if you consider what is happening in Europe right now, maybe you'll concede that this is quite probable.

When they WERE in a minority, things went reasonably well despite refusal to learn language and customs (compare with Europe). These people have typically 8 - 12 children per family, whereas the neighbouring Buddhists have two or three. As is usual, as soon as they became a majority in The Rakhine they started demanding and I know for a fact that most none of the non-Muslim ethnicities wants to live anywhere near them.

You seem pretty sure that the soldiers killed (and Hindus, you don't seem to be worried about them) were monstrous. . I wish I could be so sure about things I have no way of knowing anything about.,

How about: 1942, Rohingyas, members of the Indian army, armed by the British, instead of killing Japs killed an estimated 20 to 40 000 non-Muslims. Innocent women and children included, if that makes you feel any better. There have been various insurgencies since then, nothing serious but nothing to help "integrate" themselves. Now that Rakhine is exporting oil and gas to China (contract for that signed 2011, first Muslim riots started in 2012) and there are indications that even more is exploitable, everyone is suddenly very interested in the area, compare that with Syria.

Pressure from the UN is going to force Myanmar to have closer ties to China, which most of them don't want.

 

Wow. A lot of detail I admit I was unaware of. You have compelled me to study the situation more closely. I do agree that there is real worldwide problem with Muslim communities refusing to assimilate. That needs to be addressed. Though I will be accused of being irreverent, I think steps like forbidding the covering of the faces of women, encouraging families to have their teenage daughters participate in beauty and bikini contests, dance, and music, and other sorts of cultural practice, would go a long way toward changing the stagnation of assimilation.

 

Something does need to be done. Also, I think any nation is correct to refuse entry, or visas, and most of all citizenship to anyone who practices, or even agrees with Sharia law. Also the birthrate thing is another staggering problem within the Muslim religion. It seems to be prevalent within most Muslim communities. The fastest growing nations on earth are nearly all Muslim dominated. What is up with that?