UN expert: No peace in Myanmar if no military prosecutions

A member of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar warned Friday that there will be no long-term peace in the country and no return of Rohingya refugees unless there is accountability for the "brutality" of Myanmar's military forces.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, a Sri Lankan lawyer who is one of the mission's three international experts, told an informal Security Council meeting on accountability in Myanmar that the commission believes a domestic judicial process is not possible at this time.

"There's danger to the victims and witnesses, as they have been threatened," she said, "and we feel that the Commission of Inquiry sent up by the Myanmar government may face the same challenge."
Coomeraswamy pointed to the release of seven soldiers sentenced to up to 10 years in prison with hard labour for the killings of 10 Rohingya villagers after just nine months "because of the national and political pressure."
"Pressure by military and political forces will not only frighten away witnesses, but they will not allow a domestic, and we think even at this time, a hybrid form of accountability to take place," she said. "We therefore need an international mechanism or process."
Wakar Uddin, a Rohingya born in northern Rakhine state who came to the US for graduate studies, told the council that accountability "is a central issue to the Rohingya crisis as of now."
China's deputy UN ambassador Wu Haitao echoed this, adding that Beijing's three-stage solution is "stopping violence, repatriation and development."