Is Myanmar’s ‘independent’ probe into atrocities stacked against Rohingya?
Aung San Suu Kyi tries to appease international critics by forming a panel to investigate the military’s alleged atrocities in Rakhine state. But nobody seems to be buying it ...
Half of the commission members investigating alleged atrocities committed during a brutal crackdown against Rohingya Muslims have a questionable track record on human rights, adding to doubts that the inquiry is nothing more than a fig leaf as Myanmar tries to buy diplomatic goodwill.
The four-person team was formed this week, nearly a year after a military operation forced 700,000 Rohingya to flee the country. The military has been accused of killings, rape, torture, and arson during sweeps through Rohingya villages.
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But the “independent” inquiry, which includes two foreign diplomats, has been denounced as being formed by a government unwilling and unable to bring security forces to account and dismissed as an attempt to buy itself time and goodwill on the international stage.
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Sitting on the commission are: the Philippine’s former deputy foreign minister Rosario Manalo, Japan’s former UN representative Kenzo Oshima, the former chairman of Myanmar’s constitutional tribunal U Mya Thein and Aung Tun Thet, who directs the Myanmar government body dedicated to the Rohingya crisis.