UN wants inquiry into Myanmar alleged war crimes

The Myanmar military must be investigated for possible war crimes as tensions escalate in the western Rakhine and Chin states, the departing United Nations human rights envoy for the Southeast Asian country said on Wednesday.

Armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, have increasingly staged attacks against civilians in recent weeks with air and artillery strikes that "may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity," Yanghee Lee said in her final statement after six years as special rapporteur.

"While the world is occupied with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Myanmar military continues to escalate its assault in Rakhine state, targeting the civilian population," the South Korean envoy added.

Lee said Myanmar's military is once again killing scores of civilians, burning homes and torturing detainees.

Read more: Opinion: Why has the West failed to address the Rohingya crisis?

Bloody civil war

Fighting between government troops and ethnic minority rebels erupted in January last year, displacing some 150,000 people and forcing them to flee their homes while dozens have been killed and hundreds wounded.

The military is embroiled in an increasingly bloody civil war against the Arakan Army, an insurgent group fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.

The Myanmar government has repeatedly refused requests by the UN envoy to enter the country. Lee had previously accused the army of genocide and other war crimes against Rakhine's Rohingya Muslim minority in 2017, when some 700,000 escaped an army crackdown.

The army and government have rejected such accusations and said the military was responding to attacks by Rohingya Muslim rebels.

Lee also criticized the targeting of aid workers and called on the Arakan Army, which has been accused of kidnapping officials, to protect civilians.

Last week, a driver for the World Health Organization was killed. Government troops and insurgents blamed each other for his death.

"Calls for a cease-fire, including by the Arakan Army, have gone unheeded," Lee said. "Instead, the Tatmadaw is inflicting immense suffering on the ethnic communities in Rakhine and Chin."

Military spokesmen have not yet commented on the matter, Reuters news agency reported.

The Arakan Army, along with two other ethnic minority rebel forces, announced a month-long cease-fire for April, citing the coronavirus outbreak,

The military rejected the cease-fire, with a spokesman saying rebels had disregarded a previous government truce.

mvb/sms (AFP, Reuters, dpa)

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