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Thousands of Rohingya refugees fled their villages, walked for days, and finally crossed the border. Exhausted, they continue crossing rice fields. Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

The UN fact-finding mission in Burma on Tuesday presented the findings of its investigation, again referring to "genocide" of the Rohingya by the Burmese army. In presenting their report, UN investigators demanded that the Burmese army, which continues to control much of Burma despite democratization that began in 2012, be excluded from political life in the country.

On 18 September, United Nations investigators demanded that the Burmese army be excluded from political life, urging the dismissal of senior officers involved in the " genocide " of the Rohingya ethnic Muslim minority.

The UN fact-finding mission to Burma, which was not allowed to visit the country, interviewed more than 850 victims and witnesses and used satellite images to write a report. 444 pages, presented to the UN Human Rights Council.

The Burmese military rejects these accusations and claims that its campaign targeted Rohingya rebels after deadly attacks on police stations in August 2017. Burma's UN ambassador in Geneva, Kyaw Moe Tun, accused the UN mission, " Put under tremendous pressure, to come to a dangerous conclusion that could derail the process of democratization ".

" Armed ethnic organization "

More than 700,000 Rohingyas, members of a Muslim ethnic minority, fled in 2017 the violence of the army and Buddhist militia to seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh where they have since lived in huge makeshift encampments.

Despite the coming to power in 2016 of Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government, the army remains central to Burma's political regime. It controls three ministerial ministries and oversees the allocation of one-quarter of the seats in Parliament, which allows it to block any constitutional amendment that limits its powers.

For Christopher Sidoti, a member of the UN fact-finding mission, " the NLD (National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi's political party, editor's note) controls the laws, the Burmese army controls the country. There can be no democratic transition in the country if the military does not stop controlling politics, the economy and the Constitution. The army chiefs must be replaced, the army and the police must be separated, so that the police can be a real civilian police force, a control process be put in place for the soldiers, and new rules of combat that place human rights and humanitarian law first and foremost . "

" The Burmese army must become a military force worthy of the name: in 70 years, it was continuously at war, but never against an external enemy, always against the inhabitants of Burma ," says Christopher Sidoti. The army can decide to become a real military force that supports the development of a modern nation. Or stay what it has been for 70 years: an armed ethnic organization, like all those it fights. Nothing more, nothing less. It faces a crucial choice, which will determine the future of Burma ".

(With agencies)