Conflict

UN investigator says genocide against Rohingya ‘ongoing’

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A UN investigator disclosed that the genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar was ‘ongoing’, demonstrating that the government has no interest in establishing a fully functioning democracy, Al Jazeera reported.

The investigator, Marzuki Darusman who is the chief of the UN fact-finding mission said the estimated 250,000 to 400,000 Rohingya who remained in the Buddhist-majority country following last year’s brutal crackdown “continue to suffer the most severe” restrictions and repression.

“Atrocities continue to take place today,” he told reporters while preparing to brief the UN Security Council on the situation on Wednesday. “It is an ongoing genocide that is taking place.”

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The Myanmar government has been under intensive international criticism following a military crackdown in the western state of Rakhine that pushed some 700,000 Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh amidst accusations of mass rape, murder and torture.

Tensions escalated after the government rejected the 440-page UN report on the crackdown, which stated that top military leaders should be prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide for their role in the crackdown.

The UN investigation was “flawed, biased and politically motivated”, Myanmar’s council representative, while rejecting the report’s findings, said.

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Darusman told the council the mission’s report on the crackdown showed a “human rights catastrophe” that would affect the Rohingya for “generations to come, if not forever”. He urged the council to hold Myanmar accountable.

“National sovereignty is not a licence to commit crimes against humanity or genocide,” said Darusman. “The Rohingya and all of Myanmar’s people, in fact the entire world, is looking at you to take action.”

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