UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar’s rights situation Yanghee Lee on Thursday proposed mounting pressure on UN Security Council (UNSC) for exposing to punitive actions perpetrators of Rohingya genocide since the council so far failed to effectively denounce the culprits, reports BSS.
“Unfortunately the UN Security Council (UNSC) failed to refer the situation of Myanmar to international Criminal Court,” she told a press conference before ending her final trip to Bangladesh as the UN rapporteur as she nearly wrapped a six-year assignment to record Rohingya atrocity evidences.
Yanghee added “I think we must continue to put pressure on UN Security Council on its failure to do this.” She bluntly attributed the UNSC failure to China and Russia saying “it is really regretful” adding “I’ve said this many times that it’s shameful for the (two) states to not do anything (against human rights violation)”.
Yanghee, a psychology professor by background currently associated with the South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission as well, said she was now set to submit her report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). UN had assigned her as its Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar in 2014 but during the period Myanmar never allowed her to enter into its territory forcing her to extract the evidence from Rogingyas fled to Bangladesh and other sources.
Yanghee said Myanmar repeatedly denied her request after the outbreak of Rohingya influx, prompting her to visit Bangladesh several times to gauge the situation in bordering Rakhine State. “I am disappointed. I must speak the truth,” she said over Myanmar’s denials but added that despite the end of her UN assignment she would continue to strive to do her utmost to improve the situation.
The UN official said she found a deep desire among Rohingyas to return to their homeland in Rakhine during her interactions with them in their makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazar. Yanghee said her report would also contain a proposal to set up an UN-backed ad-hoc international tribunal for effective punitive actions against Rohingya genocide perpetrators following the examples of special courts for trial of Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina atrocities.
All the three special tribunals were set in The Hague, where the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and International Criminal Court (ICC) are also situated while both the courts earlier took into cognizance the Rohingya atrocities for separate legal actions. Yanghee said the proposed tribunal would supplement the ICJ and ICC procedures.
