Myanmar official committee recommends security "war crimes" against Rohingya

An independent committee set up by the Myanmar government has suggested that the country's security forces are involved in war crimes against Rohingya Muslims.

This was according to the findings of the independent investigation committee in Myanmar, and published it in a statement on its Facebook page.

And the commission - which was chaired by Filipino diplomat Rosario Manalo - considered in a report submitted Monday to Myanmar President Wayne Mint that there was no evidence to support the charges of committing or planning genocide against the Rohingya.

The commission's report said that it had found no evidence of genocide, but it went further than any public statements by the Myanmar government indicating that government forces were involved in major violations.

"Although these serious crimes and violations have been committed by multiple parties, there are reasonable grounds to believe that members of the Myanmar security forces were involved in war crimes, serious human rights violations and violations of domestic law in 2017," the report said.

"The killing of innocent villagers and the destruction of their homes are practices committed by some members of the Myanmar security forces through the disproportionate use of force during the internal armed conflict," he added.

The committee responsible for the report has indicated that it will hand him over to be available for use in various investigations and possible trials by the civil and military authorities in Myanmar.

The commission's report comes ahead of an expected decision Tuesday by the United Nations Supreme Court, on a request ordering Myanmar to stop the genocide campaign against the Rohingya.

Last November 11, The Gambia filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice accusing Myanmar of violating its obligations under the provisions of the 1948 Convention to Prevent and Punish Genocide.

The Gambia has received support from 57 OIC countries, but it is expected that this support in legal proceedings will not have any material impact later.

The International Court of Justice, the highest court in the United Nations, is scheduled to issue a decision within days on a request for urgent action in a genocide case against Myanmar.

recognition
Myanmar leader Eun San Suu Kyi admitted - during her testimony before the International Court of Justice last December - that her country was using a disproportionate force in dealing with Muslims in Arakan state.

"I do not rule out the use of disproportionate force (in Arakan), but this does not amount to genocide," said So Chi.

Since August 25, 2017, the Myanmar armed forces and Buddhist militias have launched a military campaign that includes brutal massacres against the Rohingya in Arakan.

These continuing crimes have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Rohingya people, according to identical local and international sources, as well as about one million refugees in Bangladesh, according to the United Nations.

The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya irregular migrants from Bangladesh, while the United Nations classifies them as the most persecuted minority in the world.

protest
The Burmese Rohingya Organization in Britain (a non-governmental human rights organization) quickly condemned the report of the investigation committee, considering it a "flagrant" attempt to beautify the image of the Burmese army and divert attention from the ruling of the International Court of Justice.

In Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled, one of their leaders, Del Mohamed, described the report as a whitewash of the truth. "They persecuted us for decades. Many of our people were killed, our women were raped, our children were thrown into the fire, and our homes were burned. If this was not genocide, what would it be?"

For his part, Phil Robertson, a Human Rights Watch official, said that the report apparently attempts to sacrifice some of the soldiers as a scapegoat, instead of holding the military leadership responsible for the violations committed by them.