Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi demonstrate in The Hague, December 11, 2019. - AFP

Burmese government commission to investigate abuses against Rohingya Muslims concluded in report published Monday that some Burmese soldiers had committed war crimes against them but that the military was not guilty of genocide.

The Independent Commission of Inquiry has published the conclusions of its work before the judgment to be rendered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the emergency measures requested by The Gambia to protect the Rohingya from further abuses by the Burmese army, accused of "genocide" against the Muslim minority.

The commission recognized that members of the security forces had used disproportionate force and committed war crimes and serious human rights violations, including "the murder of innocent villagers and the destruction of their homes". . But these crimes do not constitute genocide, said the commission of inquiry. "There is no clear evidence to argue, much less to conclude, that the crimes committed were with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group," said added the investigators.

"Another attempt to whitewash the army"

The Gambia, supported by the 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Canada and the Netherlands, accuses Burma of having violated the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide . She asked the ICJ to order "emergency measures" to protect the Rohingya who remained in Burma from further abuses. The ICJ, the UN judicial body, is due to issue its decision on January 23.

A human rights organization, the Burmese Rohingya UK Organization (BROUK) challenged the findings of the commission of inquiry, saying it was a "blatant public relations operation" to hijack attention to the judgment to be rendered by the International Court of Justice. The investigation requested by Rangoon on "human rights violations in Rakhine State is a new attempt to whitewash the army" concerning the violence inflicted on the Rohingyas ", said the spokesman of this NGO, Tun Khin.

The report appears to take soldiers as scapegoats for individual soldiers rather than blaming the abuses on military command, Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said, calling for the immediate publication of the full text. The commission's investigation, including its methodology and procedures, is "far from transparent," he said. The commission includes two Burmese and two foreigners, the Filipino diplomat Rosario Manalo and the former Japanese ambassador to the UN Kenzo Oshima.

Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi came personally to The Hague in December to say that her country was capable of carrying out its own investigation into the accusations of abuse.

World

VIDEO. Rohingyas: Aung San Suu Kyi denounces "misleading and incomplete picture" of the situation

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  • UN
  • Genocide
  • Aung san suu kyi
  • Burma
  • Rohingyas
  • War crimes