• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Saturday, June 3, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

600,000 Rohingya Still in Myanmar at ‘Serious Risk of Genocide:’ UN

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
09/16/19
in Featured, Refugees, World
A Myanmar border guard

An armed Myanmar border guard in Rakhine state in March 2018 at the border with Bangladesh. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Rohingya Muslims remaining in Myanmar still face a “serious risk of genocide,” U.N. investigators said Monday, warning the repatriation of a million already driven from the country by the army remains “impossible.”

The fact-finding mission to Myanmar, set up by the Human Rights Council, last year branded the army operations in 2017 as “genocide” and called for the prosecution of top generals, including army chief Min Aung Hlaing.

Some 740,000 Rohingya fled burning villages, bringing accounts of murder, rape, and torture over the border to sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh, where survivors of previous waves of persecution already languished.

But in a damning report, the United Nations team said the 600,000 Rohingya still inside Myanmar’s Rakhine state remain in deteriorating and “deplorable” conditions.

“Myanmar continues to harbor genocidal intent and the Rohingya remain under serious risk of genocide,” the investigators said in their final report on Myanmar, due to be presented Tuesday in Geneva.

The country is “denying wrongdoing, destroying evidence, refusing to conduct effective investigations and clearing, razing, confiscating and building on land from which it displaced Rohingya,” it said.

Rohingya were living in “inhumane” conditions, the report continued, adding more than 40,000 structures had been destroyed in the 2017 crackdown.

‘War Crimes’

The mission reiterated calls for the U.N. Security Council to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or to set up a tribunal, like for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

It said it had a confidential list of more than 100 names, including officials, suspected of being involved in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, in addition to the six generals named publicly last year.

The report also repeated calls for foreign governments and companies to sever all business ties with the military, urging a “moratorium” on investment and development assistance in Rakhine state.

The maligned Muslim community has long been subjected to tight movement restrictions, making it difficult or impossible to access healthcare, work and education.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and are accused of being illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

The army justified the crackdown as a means of rooting out Rohingya insurgents.

Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a repatriation deal two years ago, but virtually no refugees have returned to date.

The investigators described conditions in Myanmar as “unsafe, unsustainable and impossible” for returns to take place.

Nearly 130,000 Rohingya have been trapped in camps in central Rakhine since a previous bout of violence seven years ago.

Described as “open-air prisons” by Amnesty International, people there remain reliant on humanitarian aid and are rarely granted permission to leave.

Those outside the camps fare little better, needing special authorization – and often hefty bribes – to leave their village boundaries.

Their homes flattened by bulldozers and land commandeered, refugees in Bangladesh fear they will be subjected to the same, or even worse, treatment if they return to the processing camps built by Myanmar.

The U.N. team also accused the army of fresh “war crimes,” including forced labor and torture, against civilians in the north of Rakhine state.

The area has once again become embroiled in conflict as the military wages war on the Arakan Army (AA), rebels fighting for the rights of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.

Myanmar military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun rejected the team’s findings, calling them “one-sided.”

“Instead of making biased accusations, they should go onto the ground to see the reality,” Zaw Min Tun told AFP.

The U.N. investigators have never been granted permission to enter Myanmar or access Rakhine.

The team has handed its report to an investigative panel, which aims to build up evidence to support any future prosecution.

“The scandal of international inaction has to end,” mission expert Christopher Sidoti said.

“Unless the United Nations and the international community take effective action this time, this sad history is destined to be repeated.”


More on the Subject 

200,000 Rohingya Rally to Mark ‘Genocide Day’ in Bangladesh Camps

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Children and families flee their neighbourhoods amid fighting in Khartoum, Sudan
World

‘Frighteningly Large Number of Children’ Killed in Sudan: UN

by Staff Writer
May 5, 2023
Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016
Refugees

US Announces $26M in New Aid for Rohingya

by Staff Writer
March 8, 2023
People cool off with a fountain's water during a heat wave in Seville, Spain
Environment

UN Confirms 2022 Among Eight Hottest Years on Record

by Staff Writer
January 13, 2023
Sudan clashes
World

Death Toll in Sudan’s Ethnic Clashes Rises to 13: UN

by Staff Writer
October 17, 2022
Myanmar school attack
World

Myanmar School Attack Could Be ‘War Crime’: UN Probe

by Staff Writer
September 27, 2022
Taliban fighters
Featured

UN Expert Decries ‘Systematic’ Attacks on Afghan Shiites

by Staff Writer
September 12, 2022
Next Post
A man at work in U.S. auto-manufacturing plant.

Some 46,000 General Motors Auto Workers Strike in US

African migrants sit in a packed room with their beds and blankets, at the Tariq Al-Matar detention centre on the outskirts of the Libyan capital Tripoli

Italy Arrests 'Torturers' After Migrants Denounce Libya Camp Horrors

Recommended

A man holds US, Taiwan flags

US and Taiwan Ink Trade Deal as China Issues Warning

June 2, 2023
Migrants waiting at the Turkish border.

Beyond Numbers: Confronting Europe’s Broken Border System

May 30, 2023
A noose is seen on makeshift gallows as supporters of US President Donald Trump gather on the West side of the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021

Militia Leader Gets 18 Years in Prison Over US Capitol Attack

May 26, 2023
Customers queue to enter a re-opened Zara clothes shop

EU Targets Fast Fashion in Push for Durable Goods

May 23, 2023
A billboard showing the debt limit is seen in Washington, D.C.

US Republicans Upbeat on Prospects for Debt Deal

May 19, 2023
Military hardware rolls through Dvortsovaya Square during a Victory Day military parade in central Saint Petersburg

Pressing Russia, US Shares Nuclear Warhead Data Under Treaty

May 16, 2023

Opinion

Migrants waiting at the Turkish border.

Beyond Numbers: Confronting Europe’s Broken Border System

May 30, 2023
A man holding a gun

The NRA’s Continuing Agenda of Fear

May 12, 2023
US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

A Supreme Folly 

April 24, 2023
Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post