Myanmar military leaders guilty of ‘crimes against humanity’: AI

NEW YORK: Myanmar’s military chief and other top brass have been accused by Amnesty International (AI) of crimes against humanity for overseeing a “systematic” attack against Rohingya Muslims, according to a report by the rights group Wednesday calling for prosecution at the International Criminal Court.

More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims were forced to flee Rakhine state after a military crackdown that the United Nations has said amounts to “ethnic cleansing”.

Myanmar’s military has denied targeting the stateless minority and said it was defending itself against Muslim militants who attacked police posts in August 2017.

But a new report from Amnesty said army commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing and 12 other senior military and security officials oversaw an orchestrated campaign of violence in the restive state where the Rohingya have been historically marginalized.

“The ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya population was achieved by a relentless and systematic campaign in which the Myanmar security forces unlawfully killed thousands of Rohingya, including young children,” said the report. It also accused security forces of sexual violence, torture, forced displacement and burning markets and farmland that starved communities and forced them to flee.

“These crimes amount to crimes against humanity under international law, as they were perpetrated as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Rohingya population,” the report said.

The report said some senior military figures and border guard police oversaw units that directly carried out alleged atrocities, while others knew of subordinates’ actions and failed to prevent, stop or punish the crimes.