Arakan News Agency
UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar said on Monday that the Myanmar government appears to be pursuing a policy of starvation in Arakan state to force the rest of the Rohingya population to leave.
Lee told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that the army also launched new attacks in the states of Kachin and Kayin .
The atrocities against the Muslim Rohingya minority “bear the hallmarks of genocide,” she said. It called on the Council to establish an entity in Bangladesh, where more than 650,000 Rohingya fled, to gather evidence for possible trials.
Myanmar Ambassador Htin Lin rejected the Special Rapporteur’s statement and called on the council to dismiss her.
Lee said the violence in Arakan has covered all other events in Myanmar in the past few years as the government is also fighting rebels in Shan, Kayin and Kachin states.
She had received information that the military mounted new ground offensives last week using heavy artillery in Kachin’s gold and amber-mining area of Tanai.
Myanmar’s military had also advanced into Mutraw District in Kayin State, an area controlled by the Karen National Union, despite a ceasefire agreement, she said.
“The violation of the cease-fire agreement has pushed 1,500 villagers in 15 villages to flee. I am very concerned that these attacks continue. The road to peace is through a comprehensive political dialogue and not through military force. “
Myanmar appeared to be implementing a policy of starvation in Arakan with the aim of making life intolerable for Rohingya.
Marzuki Darusman, chairman of a fact-finding mission on Myanmar set up by the council, said his team had received a flood of allegations against the security forces in Rakhine, Kachin, Shan and elsewhere.
“All the information collected by the Fact-Finding Mission so far further points to violence of an extremely cruel nature, including against women,” he said.
“The Fact-Finding Mission has met with women who showed fresh and deep bite marks on their faces and bodies sustained during acts of sexual violence.”
Myanmar’s ambassador Lynn did not respond to the criticism in detail but told the council it was wrong to assert that Myanmar’s leadership remained indifferent to the allegations.
“Our leadership and the government shall never tolerate such crimes. We are ready to take action, where there is the evidence,” he said.
