
Facebook banned Myanmar´s army chief and removed other pages tied to the country´s military on Monday after a UN probe called for him to be prosecuted for genocide over a crackdown on Rohingya Muslims.
“We are banning 20 Burmese individuals and organizations from Facebook – including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the armed forces,” the social media giant said in a statement on its site, adding that it wants to prevent them from using the service to “further inflame ethnic and religious tensions”.
Some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled northern Rakhine state to Bangladesh after Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown last August on insurgents amid accounts of arson, murder and rape at the hands of soldiers and vigilante mobs in the mainly Buddhist country.
Myanmar has vehemently denied allegations of ethnic cleansing, insisting it was responding to attacks by Rohingya rebels.
But in Monday´s report, the UN mission insisted the army tactics had been “consistently and grossly disproportionate to actual security threats.”
The mission, which was created by the UN Human Rights Council in March 2017, concluded in a report that “there is sufficient information to warrant the investigation and prosecution of senior officials in the Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) chain of command.”
“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.
The investigators named Min Aung Hlaing and five other top military commanders, adding that a longer list of names could be shared with “any competent and credible body pursuing accountability in line with international norms and standards.”
Share this:
Related
RELATED ARTICLES
News Viewership Statistics
- 24,717 hits
Ad
Recent Posts
- Nawaz calls Daska poll irregularities ‘evidence of 2018 election rigging’ 27 February 2021
- Saudi crown prince ‘approved’ Khashoggi murder: US intelligence 27 February 2021
- Indian social media rules could threaten free expression, critics warn 26 February 2021
- KMC removes soft encroachments from 2km strip of Orangi nullah 26 February 2021
- Watch SAMAA TV Headlines 9pm Pakistan – 26 February 2021 26 February 2021
Old Archives
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018