{"id":136727,"date":"2017-12-06T00:36:43","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T05:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=136727"},"modified":"2017-12-06T00:38:25","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T05:38:25","slug":"un-myanmars-rohingya-likely-faced-crimes-against-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/06\/un-myanmars-rohingya-likely-faced-crimes-against-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"UN: Myanmar’s Rohingya likely faced crimes against humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The crisis has left untold numbers of Rohingya killed and injured, and forced more than 626,000 to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh. (Photo<\/a> by AK Rockefeller\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GENEVA\u2014\u00a0 Myanmar’s Rohingya minority has \u201cvery likely\u201d faced crimes against humanity and possibly genocide at the hands of Myanmar security forces and their helpers, the U.N.’s top human rights body and a top U.N. official said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The comments came at an urgent session of the 47-member Human Rights Council, which overwhelmingly approved a resolution that said crimes against humanity \u201cvery likely\u201d occurred in Myanmar against the Muslim minority group since a security crackdown began in August.<\/p>\n

The crisis has left untold numbers of Rohingya killed and injured, and forced more than 626,000 to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

Marzuki Darusman, who heads a council-mandated fact-finding mission on Myanmar that has received no access to the troubled state of Rakhine where many Rohingya once lived, chronicled a litany of allegations including the rape of young girls some burnt to death or with their throats slit and the mutilation of victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe allegations are numerous and many of extreme severity,\u201d Darusman said. \u201cSome have concluded that genocide or crimes against humanity have taken place. We have not yet come to any conclusion on these issues, but we are taking such allegations very seriously and are examining them in depth.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the U.N. human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, challenged the council, insisting that the possibility of genocide was real.<\/p>\n

Zeid, a Jordanian prince, cited the longtime segregation, exclusion and discrimination faced by the Rohingya. He referred to allegations of killings by grenades, shootings at close range, stabbings and \u201cthe burning of houses with families inside.\u201d He noted that Rohingya see themselves as a distinct ethnic group.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven all of this, can anyone rule out that elements of genocide may be present?\u201d Zeid asked. \u201cUltimately, this is a legal determination only a competent court can make.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the concerns are extremely serious, and clearly call for access to be immediately granted for further verification,\u201d he added, decrying how Myanmar’s government has rebuffed U.N. monitors.<\/p>\n

Myanmar’s army began what it called \u201cclearance operations\u201d on Aug. 25 following an attack on police posts by Rohingya insurgents. Refugees arriving in Bangladesh said their homes were set on fire by soldiers and Buddhist mobs, and some reported being shot at by security forces.<\/p>\n

Zeid said actions by Myanmar’s government to \u201cdehumanize\u201d the Rohingya minority were likely to fan more violence and affect more communities across the region.<\/p>\n

Myanmar’s ambassador in Geneva, Htin Lynn, denied any state efforts at \u201cdehumanization\u201d of the Rohingya, saying it \u201ccould be an act of extremist individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy government is doing everything possible to deter these extremist acts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With his government in the spotlight, the ambassador said the priority should be on returning displaced people to Rakhine.<\/p>\n

Zeid, however, said no repatriation of Rohingya to Myanmar should occur without \u201csustained human rights monitoring\u201d to ensure they can live safely.<\/p>\n

He said Myanmar authorities had refused to give his office access to Rakhine, and that he had instead sent three teams to Bangladesh to monitor the situation and interview refugees.<\/p>\n

The council’s resolution broke little new ground other than calling for Zeid’s office to report on Myanmar’s co-operation with U.N. rights investigators.<\/p>\n

It passed 33 to 3 China, the\u00a0Philippines\u00a0and Burundi voted against it with nine abstentions. Two delegations in the 47-member council were not present.<\/p>\n

Iniyan Ilango of the group Forum Asia said the session, which was sought by Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh with the support of dozens of other countries, showed the widespread concern about the Rohingya.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this is welcome, there is more the body could have done,\u201d he said of the resolution, such as demanding safeguards for Rohingya who might return home under a repatriation deal between Bangladesh and Myanmar.<\/p>\n

Ilango said the human rights council \u201cfailed to respond adequately\u201d to the unfolding crisis at its September session, and said it could do more \u201cin the face of one of the worst human rights tragedies of our times.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GENEVA\u2014\u00a0 Myanmar’s Rohingya minority has \u201cvery likely\u201d faced crimes against humanity and possibly genocide at the hands of Myanmar security …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":118983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[37257,37256],"class_list":["post-136727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-w","tag-myanmars-rohingya","tag-un-myanmars-rohingya-likely-faced-crimes-against-humanity","mauthors-jamey-keaten","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}