UN experts urge ‘financial isolation’ of Myanmar mly

GENEVA: Myanmar’s military commanders should be financially "isolated" and brought to trial to face charges of war crimes and genocide against the Rohingya minority, UN investigators said on Tuesday.

The United Nations fact-finding mission on the situation in Myanmar called on the international community to cut off all financial and other support to the country’s military. Marzuki Darusman, who heads the fact-finding mission which just concluded a 10-day visit to surrounding countries, said drastic measures were needed since Myanmar so far had done little to resolve the egregious rights situation in the country.

"There has been no movement toward a resolution of the crisis," Darusman said in a statement. "The situation is at a total standstill". Some 740,000 Rohingya refugees fled a military crackdown in August 2017 to cross into Bangladesh where 300,000 members of the persecuted Muslim minority were already in camps.

Many Rohingya refugees who fled said there had been mass rapes and slaughters in the villages, and in a report published last September, the fact-finding mission said there were reasonable grounds to believe the atrocities amounted to "genocide".

The investigators lamented on Tuesday that "both military and civilian sides of Myanmar’s government persistently deny the facts and disclaim any responsibility for crimes under international law.