Myanmar's military accused of genocide in damning UN report

Myanmar’s military has been accused of genocide against the Rohingya in Rakhine state in a damning UN report that alleged the army was responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity against minorities across the country.

The UN report said it found conclusive evidence that the actions of the country’s armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, “undoubtedly amounted to the gravest crimes under international law” in Rakhine as well as in Kachin and Shan, states also riven by internal conflicts.

The UN investigators were denied access to Myanmar by the government but interviewed 875 witnesses who had fled the country. They found that the military were “killing indiscriminately, gang-raping women, assaulting children and burning entire villages” in Rakhine, home to the Muslim Rohingya, and in Shan and Kachin. The Tatmadaw also carried out murders, imprisonments, enforced disappearances, torture, rapes and used sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence, persecution and enslavement – all of which constitute crimes against humanity.

In northern Rakhine, the mission also found evidence of mass extermination and deportation.

“The fact-finding mission’s powerful report and clear recommendations demonstrate the obvious need for concrete steps to advance criminal justice for atrocious crimes, instead of more hollow condemnations and expressions of concern,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “This report should eliminate any doubt about the urgency of investigating those responsible for mass atrocities.”

The mission, prompted by the UN security council visit in March, called for an investigation into the military’s actions in Rakhine. The campaign of violence against the Rohingya began a year ago. An estimated 25,000 people have been killed and 700,000 have fled over the border to Bangladesh.

Following the report’s publication, the UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, tweeted that he would visit the country “to seek answers at the earliest opportunity”.

Laying out the legal argument for genocide to have taken place, the UN report said: “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.”

Individuals singled out for investigation and prosecution for genocide and crimes against humanity included Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw, who has openly stated his intention to solve “the long-standing Bengali problem”.

“There is sufficient information to warrant the investigation and prosecution of senior officials in the Tatmadaw chain of command, so that a competent court can determine their liability for genocide in relation to the situation in Rakhine state,” the report said.

Minutes after the report was released, Facebook removed 18 accounts and 52 pages associated with the Myanmar military, including that of Min Aung Hlaing. It comes in the wake of months of criticism of the company for failing to combat the spread of hate speech on Facebook in Myanmar. The Tatmadaw have often used their Facebook pages to spread disinformation and anti-Rohingya sentiment, such as photos of dismembered children posted to Min Aung Hlaing’s page, claiming they were killed by “Muslim terrorists”.

“We want to prevent them from using our service to further inflame ethnic and religious tensions,” the company said. The pages and accounts that were removed had a total of almost 12 million followers.

The UN mission called for Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to be investigated by the international criminal court (ICC). Although the country is not a signatory to the Rome statute, and therefore not under the jurisdiction of the court, ICC prosecutors are deliberating whether they can investigate the violence in Rakhine.

The UN report also prompted Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Fortify Rights and Save the Children to push for Myanmar to be investigated by the ICC.

“The international community has the responsibility to act to ensure justice and accountability,” said Tirana Hassan, the director of crisis response at Amnesty International. “Failing to do so sends a dangerous message that Myanmar’s military will not only enjoy impunity but is free to commit such atrocities again.”

Michael McGrath, the country director for Save the Children in Myanmar, added: “Children and their families have been murdered, sexually assaulted and forced to flee burning villages, and they have not yet seen the justice they deserve. Establishing the facts through the fact-finding mission was a critical first step to achieving justice; however now there must be a move towards investigations for prosecution.”

The UN report is very likely to anger Myanmar’s military and government, which have denied genocide has occurred in Rakhine and claimed that the Rohingya – whom they regularly refer to as “illegal Bengali immigrants” – instigated the violence by attacking security forces and then burning their own villages to the ground. Both the military and the civilian government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, have stated that the actions of the armed forces were an appropriate response to “terrorists”.

The Tatmadaw’s own investigation, widely considered a farce, cleared the armed forces of all wrongdoing and the head of Aung San Suu Kyi’s newly established inquiry into Rakhine has said there would be no “finger-pointing, blaming, to say ‘you’re accountable’”.

The UN report criticised Aung San Suu Kyi’s passive role over the past year. “[She] has not used her de facto position as head of government, nor her moral authority, to stem or prevent the unfolding events in Rakhine state,” it said.

The UN said that, with Myanmar’s repeated failure to admit genocide had taken place and with the legal impunity given to the military, it fell to the international community to hold those responsible to account.

Mark Field, the UK’s minister of state for Asia and the Pacific, said “there cannot and must not be impunity for such acts”, but stopped short of calling for Myanmar to be referred to the ICC.