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Myanmar should be held accountable for Rohingya crisis: AICHR Indonesia
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This photo released by the Royal Thai Army on April 1, 2018 shows a member of the Royal Thai Navy rescue team assisting Rohingya refugees board their wooden boat after a brief stop on an island in Krabi province. (Agence France -Presse/Handout/Royal Thai Army)
T
he Indonesian representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) said both ASEAN and the AICHR must take the necessary steps to hold Myanmar accountable for the atrocity that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee the country last year.
“AICHR Indonesia is committed to urging Myanmar to be held accountable for genocides, war crimes and crimes against humanity that occur in the country. ASEAN and AICHR cannot remain silent,” Dinna Wisnu told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Dinna said she had proposed an urgent special meeting among AICHR representatives following the latest report from a United Nations fact-finding mission, which revealed genocidal intent against the Rohingya last month.
The idea was openly supported by representatives from Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines but rejected by Myanmar.
“They ‘strongly object’ to the proposal by Indonesia” she said, adding that Myanmar, however, conceded a possible unrecorded retreat meeting on the sidelines of the 28th AICHR meeting in Singapore in November.
Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week that he and his ASEAN counterparts had met and discussed the situation in Rakhine.
"To be brutally honest, this is a man-made humanitarian disaster and something that should not be happening in this day and age," he said on Tuesday as reported by AFP.
He said the ministers told Myanmar that its Independent Commission of Enquiry, “should be given a full mandate to investigate and to hold all those responsible fully accountable.”
