The international community must cut off all support to Myanmar’s military as part of efforts to hold army commanders to account for crimes against humanity and genocide, UN investigators have said following a fact-finding mission in the country. In a statement, the UN said there had been no progress in protecting the Rohingya minority, more than a million of whom have fled military “clearance operations” in the Rakhine region.

“The situation is at a total standstill,” said Marzuki Darusman, chair of the UN independent international fact-finding mission. Myanmar authorities in the Buddhist-majority country have razed empty Rohingya villages, destroying criminal evidence of abuses. About 120,000 people remain in displacement camps in fear of military reprisals. The authorities should focus on the “real betterment of the remaining Rohingya community in Myanmar,” Darusman said.

Myanmar security forces are accused of killing, gang-rape and arson during a campaign of violence that drove 730,000 Rohingya people from Rakhine in 2017. More than a million Rohingya have now been forced into exile. Myanmar has persistently denied allegations of human rights abuses, saying its security forces have not targeted civilians, and rejected a report in September last year by the UN panel, which said top military officers who conducted the campaign against the Rohingya should be prosecuted for war crimes.(theguardian)…[+]