Amnesty International has accused Myanmar’s military chief and other top brass of crimes against humanity for overseeing a systematic attack against Rohingya Muslims and calling for their prosecution at the International Criminal Court, according to an Agence France-Presse from New York on Wednesday.
The 186-page report, which is the most detailed account of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, alleged Myanmar army commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing and 12 other senior military and security officials of overseeing 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,” said the report.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have settled in squalid camps in Bangladesh after they fled Rakhine state, many too scared to go back despite a repatriation agreement with Myanmar.
Min Aung Hlaing was not subject to sanctions but six people on the EU list are also named in the report which is based on more than 400 interviews in Myanmar and Bangladesh from September 2017 to June 2018.
The report also detailed alleged abuses carried out by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, the Muslim militant group that attacked police posts on August 25, 2017.
Amnesty International said it requested a response from Myanmar’s military and the office of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi but did not receive a reply.