UN rights body members push for prosecution of Myanmar atrocities

The UN Human Rights Council should prepare evidence against perpetrators of atrocities in Myanmar that can be used by prosecutors, Western and Muslim countries demanded on Tuesday.

At a session of the UN rights body in Geneva, diplomats reacted to a UN fact-finding report that says at least 10,000 people were killed and more than 37,000 homes destroyed after Myanmar's security forces launched an attack on the Muslim Rohingya minority in August 2017.

The report, which was made public last month, linked top leaders of Myanmar's Tatmadaw military to genocide and crimes against humanity, including systematic rape, torture and enslavement.

"It is hard to fathom the level of brutality of Tatmadaw operations, its total disregard for civilian life," said Marzuki Darusman, who heads the UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar.

In a joint EU statement to the UN Human Rights Council, the bloc proposed to set up an additional panel "with a mandate to collect, consolidate and analyse evidence and to prepare case files".

The International Criminal Court in The Hague stated this month that it has jurisdiction to investigate the exodus of nearly 700,000 Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh, as well as other inhumane acts.

"The findings of the final report of the fact-finding mission on Myanmar are devastating," the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said in a statement, also demanding a UN effort to preserve legal evidence. The UN Human Rights Council is scheduled to decide on these proposals at the end of September.    (dpa)