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STORY: UN / MYANMAR
TRT: 02:40
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 24 OCTOBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UNHQ exterior
24 OCTOBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Marzuki Darusman, Chair, United Nations Fact-Finding Mission in Myanmar:
“The Tatmadaw consistently and as a matter of policy and tactics targets civilians and rapes women and girls. It actively pursues an exclusionary and discriminatory vision for the country. It has a clear chain of command, with those in leadership positions in effective control of its operations. It acts with total impunity.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Marzuki Darusman, Chair, United Nations Fact-Finding Mission in Myanmar:
“Without accountability there can be no sustainable, safe and dignified return of the Rohingya to Myanmar. How can the Rohingya be expected to return to Myanmar, where their suffering is denied, and perpetrators enjoy complete impunity? Can we reasonably expect them to rely for their protection on the same unaccountable security forces who killed, raped and devastated their communities?”
6. Med shot, Myanmar ambassador
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Marzuki Darusman, Chair, United Nations Fact-Finding Mission in Myanmar:
“Impunity must not be excused and continue to embolden the Tatmadaw in its promotion of Bamar-Buddhist supremacy. National sovereignty is not a license to commit crimes against humanity or genocide.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Hau Do Suan, Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the United Nations:
“My delegation categorically rejects inference of ‘genocidal intent’ on the legitimate counter terrorist actions by the security forces in Rakhine. The conclusion is made on unverified circumstantial evidences which has no sound legal proof. The government of Myanmar has resolutely rejected the ICC’s ruling of 6 September 2018 in connection with Rakhine State.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Masud Bin Momen, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations:
“The evidence-based information and thorough contextual analysis provided by the FFM s report have validated what we had logically assumed from the first-hand accounts we had heard from the forcibly displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh. Our highest political leadership had no doubt that the violence and persecution suffered by the Rohingya were tantamount to the gravest crimes under international law.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council
The Chair of the UN Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) in Myanmar, Marzuki Darusman, said impunity must not “continue to embolden the Tatmadaw in its promotion of Bamar-Buddhist supremacy” adding that national sovereignty is “not a license to commit crimes against humanity or genocide.”
Addressing the Security Council today (24 Oct), Darusman said the Tatmadaw, the official name of the Myanmar armed forces, “consistently and as a matter of policy and tactics targets civilians and rapes women and girls. It actively pursues an exclusionary and discriminatory vision for the country. It has a clear chain of command, with those in leadership positions in effective control of its operations. It acts with total impunity.”
The Chair said the report of the FFM documents in its 444 pages the so-called clearance operations carried out by the Tatmandaw which he said were marked by large-scale massacres, mass gang-rapes, burning, and looting. He added that the remaining Rohingya in Rakhine State are at grave risk and conditions are not in place for a safe, dignified and sustainable return of the Rohingya in Bangladesh.
He said, “without accountability there can be no sustainable, safe and dignified return of the Rohingya to Myanmar. How can the Rohingya be expected to return to Myanmar, where their suffering is denied, and perpetrators enjoy complete impunity? Can we reasonably expect them to rely for their protection on the same unaccountable security forces who killed, raped and devastated their communities?”
Darusman urged the Security Council to take decisive action to prevent the further fomenting of hatred, hostility, discrimination and extremism that will inevitably lead to further devastation. He said there could be no moving on from this crisis without addressing the root causes, all of which he said continue to exist today.
He said “impunity must not be excused and continue to embolden the Tatmadaw in its promotion of Bamar-Buddhist supremacy. National sovereignty is not a license to commit crimes against humanity or genocide.”
In his address to the Council, Myanmar’s ambassador, Hau Do Suan, rejected the inference of “genocidal intent on the legitimate counter terrorist actions by the security forces in Rakhine.”
He said, “the conclusion is made on unverified circumstantial evidences which has no sound legal proof” and added that “the government of Myanmar has resolutely rejected the ICC’s ruling of 6 September 2018 in connection with Rakhine State.”
For his part, the ambassador of Bangladesh, Masud Bin Momen, said “the evidence-based information and thorough contextual analysis provided by the FFM s report have validated what we had logically assumed from the first-hand accounts we had heard from the forcibly displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh.”
He said Bangladesh’s political leadership “had no doubt that the violence and persecution suffered by the Rohingya were tantamount to the gravest crimes under international law.”
An estimated 693,000 Rohingya have been driven into Bangladesh (as of April 2018) escaping the violence in Rakhine State. Over half of them are children.
