Myanmar panel: Security forces likely committed war crimes

Source: AP

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) — An independent commission established by Myanmar’s government has concluded there are reasons to believe that security forces committed war crimes in counterinsurgency operations that led more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.

However, the commission, headed by a Philippine diplomat, said in a report given Monday to President Win Myint that there is no evidence supporting charges that genocide was planned or carried out against the Rohingya.

The Independent Commission of Enquiry announced its findings in a statement posted on its Facebook page and the full report does not appear to have been publicly released. Nevertheless, it went further than any public statements issued by Myanmar’s government in suggesting government forces were guilty of major abuses.

“Although these serious crimes and violations were committed by multiple actors, there are reasonable grounds to believe that members of Myanmar’s security forces were involved” in war crimes, serious human rights violations, and violations of domestic law in 2017, it said.



Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, right, shakes hands with Philippine diplomat Rosario Manalo, a member of the Independent Commission of Enquiry for Rakhine State, at the Presidential Palace in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. An independent commission established by Myanmar's government and led by Manalo has concluded there are reasons to believe that security forces committed war crimes in counterinsurgency operations that drove more than 700,000 members of the country's Muslim Rohingya minority to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)


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