UN Must Set Up International Commission Of Inquiry On Rohingyas - Centhra

KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 (Bernama) -- The Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (Centhra) urged the United Nations (UN) to expedite the establishment of the International Commission of Inquiry for Rohingyas to investigate the deteriorating human rights situation in Myanmar. Its chief executive, Azril Mohd Amin said the commission would do much to complement the existing reports, help resolve the crisis as well as bring the perpetrators to justice. "Centhra reiterates its fervent hope that the relevant parties, in particular those in the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council, will do whatever necessary and whenever needed in order to bring the investigation to a quick and timely conclusion," he said in a statement from London made avaialble to Bernama, here, Wednesday. The advocacy group also hoped that the investigation could spur possible prosecution of the Myanmar regime before the International Criminal Court (ICC), in order to resolve this matter permanently, he said. Azril and six other lawyers from Centhra are in London to testify as expert witnesses before the Permanent People's Tribunal's (PPT) inaugural tribunal on Myanmar to address the atrocities against the Rohingyas. At the two-day hearing, which started on Monday, the group presented testimonies of 35 Rohingyas who were interviewed in Malaysia five weeks ago. The UN-mandated commissions of inquiry and fact-finding missions are used to respond to situations of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law to promote accountability for such violations and counter impunity. Several commissions of inquiry had been established previously, including on Syria, Eritrea and Gaza. These international investigative bodies had been established by the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, its predecessor, the Commission on Human Rights, the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, a UN website said. Azril said besides Centhra, other international human rights non-governmental organisations, which called for the establishment of the commission on Rohingyas included Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. He also hoped that the soon-to-be released report by Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee on March 13 would provide further effective basis for action by the international community to put a stop to abuses from being committed by the Myanmar regime. "Even without the report, Centhra strongly believes that enough is known from the evidence collected to conclude that brutal acts of terror amounting to genocide and crimes against humanity have been perpetrated against the Rohingya people since the Oct 9, 2016 border attacks in Rakhine State and Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships, and continue to be so perpetrated with impunity," he said. The lawyer said prior to this, cases of human rights violations and abuses on the Rohingya community, had already been well documented. These included the report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) mission to Bangladesh as well as the report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, which was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in June 2016, he said. -- BERNAMA