BANGKOK (AP) — A special U.N. fact-finding mission has urged that Myanmar be held responsible in international legal forums for alleged genocide against its Muslim Rohingya minority.
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar says in a report wrapping up two years of documentation of human rights violations by security forces that counterinsurgency operations in 2017 included “genocidal acts.”
It says the operations killed thousands of people and caused more than 740,000 Rohingya to flee for their lives to Bangladesh.
The mission says the threat of genocide continues for an estimated 600,000 Rohingya still inside Myanmar living in “deplorable” conditions and facing persecution. It says the situation makes the repatriation of the Rohingya impossible.
It notes that other minorities in Myanmar also experience marginalization, discrimination and brutality at the hands of the military.