UN sets up team to prepare Myanmar prosecution files

The United Nations Human Rights Council voted on Thursday in favour of establishing a body to consolidate evidence of human rights abuses in Myanmar, including possible genocide, and prepare files for any future prosecution.

The 47-member Council voted by 35 votes to three, with seven abstentions, in favour of a resolution brought by the European Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, according to Reuters.

China, the Philippines and Burundi voted against the move.

A human skull is seen in a shallow grave in Inn Din, Myanmar Oct 26, 2017. Reuters

Amnesty International has hailed the UN move as a major step towards accountability for atrocity crimes in Myanmar.

“Today’s resolution is an important step forward in the fight for accountability in Myanmar, making the prospect of justice possible for the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities who have suffered atrocities at the hands of the country’s security forces,” Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s crisis response director, said in a statement.

She slammed the UN Security Council for “remaining bogged down by politics” in tackling the Rohingya crisis.

“While the UN’s Human Rights Council has today taken meaningful action in the fight for justice in Myanmar, more work remains to be done. The UN Security Council has a clear responsibility to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court,” she said.

The ICC said earlier this month that it had jurisdiction over alleged deportations of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh.

Hassan also criticised China for seeking to “shield perpetrators from justice and accountability”.

Chinese diplomat Chen Cheng told the Council that Beijing opposed the resolution because it was very likely to exacerbate the tensions. "This is in no one's interest," he said.

Human Rights Watch said the UNHCR took an important step for justice by creating the body to pinpoint criminal responsibility for the “countless atrocities” in Myanmar.

“It deals a blow to Myanmar’s deep-seated culture of impunity and moves victims closer to seeing Myanmar’s generals held to account,” said John Fisher, Geneva director at HRW.

The resolution mandates the new body to “collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of the most serious international crimes” in Myanmar since 2011 and to “prepare files…to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings”.

The resolution calls on the UN secretary-general to appoint staff and allocate the resources necessary to support the body’s work.

The UN secretary-general should act promptly to ensure that it is fully operational as soon as possible, HRW said.

The resolution follows the Sept 18 report by the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, which said Myanmar's democratic transition grounded to a standstill as authorities seek to silence critics while allowing hate speech, particularly against the Rohingyas.

In a summary submitted to the UNHCR on Aug 27, the panel said Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and called for commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing and five generals to be prosecuted for the gravest crimes under international law.

In Thursday's resolution, the Council said there was enough information to warrant a competent court "to determine their liability for genocide".

Over 700,000 Rohingyas fled Myanmar to join around 400,000 refugees in Bangladesh after the army launched an operation against insurgents on Aug 25 last year.

Myanmar, which denies the Rohingyas citizenship, has been widely criticised for atrocities against the ethnic minority during the operation as the displaced people reported that troops and local mobs had committed murder, rape, torture and arson during the crackdown.

Myanmar has denied the claims, saying that it was fighting back against militants. Though Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement for the return of the Rohingyas in late 2017, the process has yet to be initiated.

International groups, along with Bangladesh, have also demanded that Myanmar grant the Rohingyas citizenship, thus access to basic needs like health and education, as recommended by the Kofi Annan Commission formed by the government of the country’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar, however, has maintained that the Rohingyas were actually migrants from Bangladesh and conducted propaganda with false information and images in a bid to establish its claims.

With Details from Reuters