United Nations: In the harshest indictment yet of the Myanmar military, the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar, has issued a report recommending that top Myanmar military officials “be investigated and prosecuted” for genocide and human rights atrocities against the Rohingya and other minority groups in Myanmar.
last August the Myanmar authorities escalated their violent crackdown against the Rohingya, a long-persecuted Muslim minority group resulting in the exodus of more than 700,000 Rohingya to neighbouring Bangladesh. UN report outrightly dismisses the reasoning that Myanmar authorities carried out operations to root out terrorists.
The report pointed out “Military necessity would never justify killing indiscriminately, gang-raping women, assaulting children, and burning entire villages.”
According to the report, nearly 10,000 Rohingya were killed in the crackdown. In the Min Gyi village, males were killed, while the women were taken to nearby houses and gang-raped and then killed. Many houses were set ablaze.
The report states “The Tatmadaw’s tactics are consistently and grossly disproportionate to actual security threats.” It named specific top members of the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, and blames those at the highest levels of the armed forces for perpetrating ethnic violence. Those who were named include Commander-in-Chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the Myanmar military, as well as five other military officers, including Maung Maung Soe and Aung Kyaw Zaw.
The report also accused Suu Kyi of not using her de facto position as Head of Government prevent the unfolding events to protect the civilian population.
The UN panel also targeted social media, specifically Facebook, for facilitating hate speech and feeding the violence in Rakhine State.