In its latest move towards trial of Myanmar army generals, and its de facto President, Aung San Suu Kyi, the United Nations on Monday urged world leaders to impose sanctions on Myanmar, report agencies.
Scores of companies, controlled by the Myanmar army, have been accused by UN investigators of campaigning with ‘genocidal intent’ against the Rohingya minority. The latest UN response came right two years after the bloody military crackdown on the minority Rohingya Muslim community in Rakhine state of Myanmar, in August 2017.
A month ago, in July last, the US State Department announced sanctions against four Myanmar military generals, including the commander-in-chief, ‘for their roles in ethnic cleansing’ of Rohingyas. The sanctions were issued for their involvement in ‘gross violations of human rights, including extrajudicial killings, against the Rohingya’.
Earlier, in September last year, a UN probe report also called for trial of Myanmar generals ‘for genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority’, disclosing names of six top generals including Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing. The other five generals are Soe Win, Aung Kyaw Zaw, Maung Maung Soe, Aung Aung and Than Oo.
Investigators on Monday said, the purpose of the new report was to help countries cut financial ties with all army-linked companies. “For the first time, this report comes out with a clear picture of the involvement of specific European and Asian companies, and makes a point that in fact there is this relationship and it’s a violation of UN treaties and UN norms,” panel chairman, Marzuki Darusman said in an interview in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on Sunday.
A military spokesman did not answer phone calls seeking comment. Zaw Htay, a spokesman for civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi's government, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Myanmar government was sent an advance copy of the UN report.
Mentionable, demands have been mounting across the globe since the crackdown to bring the top generals who waged the campaign against Rohingyas to book. In March 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Council established the Fact-Finding Mission to probe into the alleged human rights violations by military and security forces, in Myanmar.
According to the UN, more than 730,000 Rohingyas fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh amid a military-led crackdown in August 2017 that included mass killings and gang-rapes. Myanmar’s military dominates the Buddhist-majority nation, holding a quarter of seats in parliament and controlling three ministries, making its grip on power firm despite political reforms which began in 2011.
In yesterday’s report, the investigators identified at least 59 foreign companies with some form of commercial ties to the Myanmar military, including firms from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Hong Kong and China. Of those, 15 operate joint ventures with the two military conglomerates or their subsidiaries, the report said.
Calling for the imposition of an arms embargo on the country, the investigators also named 14 companies that have sold weapons and related equipment to security forces in the country since 2016, including state-owned entities in Israel, India, South Korea, and China. Any foreign business activity involving the army and its conglomerates ‘posts a high risk of contributing to, or being linked to, violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law’, the report said.
"Corporations and individuals responsible within that corporation can be prosecuted," Darusman said, adding that the arms they provide allow the military to "continue their oppression of the Myanmar people". Myanmar has previously rejected the UN’s categorisation of the violence in Rakhine as ‘one-sided’. It says that military action that followed militant attacks on security forces in August 2017 was a legitimate counter-insurgency operation.