Two senior UN officials have urged the referral of crimes committed by the Myanmar military against Muslims of the Rohingya minority in Arakan (Rakhine) state since August 2017 to the International Criminal Court to ensure they are not repeated.
This came at a press conference in New York, brought together by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, and the head of the international fact-finding mission in Myanmar, Marzuki Darusman.
She called for sanctions against companies owned by the Myanmar military, especially senior military leaders involved in serious abuses, crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Muslim minority.
She stressed that there has been no noticeable improvement in Myanmar's human rights record since 2017, and that discrimination against religious minorities continues unabated in Arakan and the capital, where the government has put more than 128,000 Rohingya under house arrest in camps they do not leave.
She pointed out that 27 villages prevent the entry of Muslims Rohingya, and describes itself as free of Muslims.
The UN official said she was still of the opinion that it was not safe for Rohingya refugees to return to Myanmar and that if they returned today they would face ugly treatment that would violate all their basic rights.
The head of the international fact-finding mission also warned that more than 600,000 Muslims - still in Myanmar - would be at risk of genocide. Darussman said that the situation of the Muslim minority in Arakan worsened compared to the last two years.