UN Investigators have asked for prosecution of Myanmar military chiefs for Rohingya genocide in a damning UN report.
The use of word genocide sheds light on the seriousness of issue as UN does not use genocide in its reports lightly, experts have argued.
The proposals were made in a report by investigators working for the UN’s top human rights body.
After UN report, Facebook also removed some of pages belonging to Myanmar’s military.
The social media giant in a statement said: “We are banning 20 Burmese individuals and organizations from Facebook – including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the armed forces”.
Facebook said that the move was to stop Myanmar’s military to “further inflame ethnic and religious tensions”.
In the UN report, compiled by three-member fact-finding mission, evidences from witness accounts, satellite footage and other information was used.
The call for prosecution based on a genocide amounts to some of the strongest language yet from UN officials.
“The crimes in Rakhine state, and the manner in which they were perpetrated, are similar in nature, gravity and scope to those that have allowed genocidal intent to be established in other contexts,” the report said.
Human rights watchers have for months pointed to evidence of genocide in Myanmar, and the United States late last year said that “ethnic cleansing” was occurring in Myanmar.