Genocide against Myanmar Rohingya is ongoing, says top UN investigator

Genocide is still taking place against Rohingya Muslims remaining in Myanmar and the government is increasingly demonstrating that it has no interest in establishing a fully functioning democracy, a UN team has said as it presented a report at the Security Council calling for the matter to be referred to the International Criminal Court.

Marzuki Darusman, chair of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, told a press conference on Wednesday that beyond mass killings, the conflict included the ostracisation of the targeted population, prevention of births, and widespread displacement in camps.

"It is an ongoing genocide,” Darusman told media conference.

He claimed that thousands of Rohingya were still fleeing to Bangladesh, and the estimated 250,000 to 400,000 who have remained following last year’s brutal military campaign in Mayanmar “continue to suffer the most severe” restrictions and repression.

“The gross human rights violations and abuses committed in Kachin, Rakhine and Shan States are shocking for their horrifying nature and ubiquity. Many of these violations undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law. They are also shocking because they stem from deep fractures in society and structural problems that have been apparent and unaddressed for decades. They are shocking for the level of denial, normalcy and impunity that is attached to them,”the report concluded, recommending that Myanmar had a heavy responsibility to remedy the situation urgently, failing which the Buddhist-majority country ran the risk of destroying its democratic reform process.

(With inputs from The Guardian)