UNITED NATIONS – The UN Security Council is scheduled to hear a briefingnext week from the head of a UN fact-finding mission that has accusedMyanmar s military of atrocities against Muslim Rohingya, diplomats saidThursday.
Nine countries including the United States, Britain and France requestedthe briefing that is likely to be opposed by China, which has friendly tieswith Myanmar s military.
The meeting was scheduled for October 24 despite objections from Myanmar,which has rejected the findings of the UN inquiry.
The fact-finding mission released an explosive report last month thatcalled on the council to refer the Myanmar situation to the InternationalCriminal Court in The Hague, or to create an ad hoc international criminaltribunal, as was done with the former Yugoslavia.
The report said that Myanmar s top generals, including Commander-in-ChiefMin Aung Hlaing, must be investigated and prosecuted for genocide inRakhine State.
Myanmar has rejected accusations that its military committed atrocities inthe crackdown last year that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee overthe border to Bangladesh.
Myanmar s Ambassador Hau Do Suan said in a letter to the Security Councilthis week that his government “strongly objects” to the request to hear thechairman of the mission.
Read Top Stories
Britain, France, Peru, Sweden, Ivory Coast, the Netherlands, Poland, Kuwaitand the United States requested the meeting that could still be blocked bya procedural vote.
If there is no move to block the meeting, the council will hear fromMarzuki Darusman, an Indonesian lawyer who was appointed last year by theUN Human Rights Council to chair the mission.
In its report, the mission said there were reasonable grounds to believethat the atrocities were committed with the intention of destroying theRohingya, warranting the charges of “genocide.”
Myanmar maintains that the violence in Rakhine was triggered by Rohingyaextremists who attacked border posts in August 2017. – APP/AFP
