Rohingya refugees watch on a mobile
phone a live feed of Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi's
appearance at the UN's International Court of Justice, in a refugee camp
in Cox's Bazar on 11 December, 2019.
It was recently reported that Myanmar had conceded that it had committed “war crimes”
against its Rohingya Muslim community. This is as far as Myanmar has
ever gone in admitting responsibility for the atrocities committed
against its Rohingya minority. Still, to some observers, this is not
good enough.
On 20 January, a Myanmar-appointed panel concluded that some soldiers
likely committed war crimes against the Rohingya but that the military,
however, was not guilty of genocide. The "Independent Commission of
Enquiry (ICOE)" released the results of its probe just ahead of a ruling
by the United Nation's (UN) top court on whether to impose urgent
measures to stop alleged ongoing genocide in Myanmar.
"There is insufficient evidence to argue, much less conclude, that
the crimes committed were undertaken with the intent to destroy, in
whole or in part, a national, ethnical (sic), racial or religious
group."
The fact that the ICOE would not admit that Myanmar’s
military, also known as the Tatmadaw, were actively engaging in genocide
as has been alleged, however, did not bode well with human rights
groups.
"Myanmar's deeply flawed investigation into human rights abuses in
Rakhine State is another attempt to whitewash the Tatmadaw's brutal
violence against the Rohingya," spokesman Tun Khin from the Burmese
Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) was reported as saying.
BROUK dismissed the findings as a "blatant public relations (PR)
exercise" to deflect attention from the International Court of Justice's
(ICJ) ruling.
Meanwhile, Phil Robertson from Human Rights Watch was quoted as
saying that the report seems to scapegoat individual soldiers rather
than place responsibility on the military command. He also called for
the immediate release of the full report.
"The entire ICOE investigation, including its methodology and operations, has been far from transparent," he said.
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