Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, head of the UN’s watchdog for human rights across the world, has told the UN Human Rights Council that the persecution and atrocities committed against the Rohingyas in Myanmar meant that genocide could not be ruled out.
He does not rule out the possibility that the civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the head of the armed forces Gen Aung Min Hlaing could find themselves in the dock on genocide charges some time in the future.
The UN human rights chief has also called for an international investigation into the perpetrators of what he has called “shockingly brutal attacks” against the Muslim ethnic minority of the Rakhine state, reports the BBC.
He had earlier urged Suu Kyi to take action to protect the Rohingyas six months before the military crackdown in late August.
He said he had spoken to Suu Kyi after his office published a report in February documenting appalling atrocities committed during an episode of violence that had begun in October 2016.
Recognizing her limited power over the military, he believes Suu Kyi could have done more to stop the military campaign.
He thought Myanmar’s military was emboldened when the international community took no action against them after the violence in 2016.f
The Myanmar government has said the military action was a response to terrorist attacks in August which killed 12 members of the security forces.
But BBC Panorama has gathered evidence that shows that preparations for the continued assault on the Rohingyas began well before that.
They say Myanmar had been training and arming local Buddhists. Within weeks of last year’s violence, the Myanmar government offered Rakhine nationals a chance to protect their state by becoming members of the local armed police.
Mathew Smith, chief executive of the human rights organisation Fortify Rights, has said that this decision was made to effectively perpetrate atrocities against the civilian population.
That view is borne out by refugees in the vast camps in Myanmar who saw these volunteers in action, attacking their Rohingyas neighbours and burning down their homes.
By summer, shortages were widespread in north Rakhine. From mid-August, the authorities had cut off virtually all food and other aid.
And the army brought in reinforcements. On August 10, two weeks before the militant attacks, it was reported that a battalion had been flown in.
The UN human rights representative for Myanmar was so concerned she issued a public warning, urging restraint from the Myanmar authorities.
But when the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) launched attacks on 30 police posts and an army base, the military response was huge, systematic and devastating.
Almost four months on from those attacks and Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein is concerned the repercussions of the violence are not yet over. He fears this “could just be the opening phases of something much worse.”
He worries jihadi groups could form in the huge refugee camps in Bangladesh and launch attacks in Myanmar, perhaps even targeting Buddhist temples. The result could be what he called a “confessional confrontation” – between Buddhists and Muslims.
Over 650,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar after the crackdown by the Myanmar military began in late August.
