A new U.N. report is slamming Burma’s leadership for the mass atrocities committed against the Rohingya minority. The report details violence in the western state of Rakhine and finds that the Burmese military committed “the gravest crimes under international law” when Rohingya villages were cleared a year ago. The report builds on an earlier U.N. report from August which called for top Burmese military leaders to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and genocide. A top U.N. human rights investigator also called out Burma’s civilian leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, for being a “fig leaf for military atrocities.” This is Marzuki Darusman, chair of the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.
Marzuki Darusman: “Repressive laws are being used to silence those that seek to scrutinize. We have verified instances of reprisals against individuals for sharing information with the United Nations. Peaceful protests are blocked, sometimes violently, as occurred in the village of Mrauk U. While voices critical of the government are muted by threats and arrest, hate speech is thriving, particularly against the Rohingya. Patience will not help Myanmar’s democratization; it will only help those that seek to derail it, as it has for over 70 years.”