Jeremy Hunt to visit Burma at ‘earliest opportunity’ following UN report

Jeremy Hunt has said he will visit Burma at the “earliest opportunity” to seek answers after a UN report called for military leaders to be prosecuted for genocide against Rohingya Muslims.

The Foreign Secretary described the report as “deeply disturbing” and said there should “never be a hiding place for those who commit these kind of atrocities”.

Investigators working for the UN’s top human rights body took the unusual step of identifying six military leaders by name among those behind what they called deadly, systematic crimes against the ethnic minority.

The call amounts to some of the strongest language yet from UN officials who have denounced alleged human rights violations in Burma since a bloody crackdown began last August.

Mr Hunt tweeted: “Deeply disturbing to read UN report on crimes against Rohingya people.

“There must be never be a hiding place for those who commit these kind of atrocities. Have decided to visit Burma to seek answers at the earliest opportunity.”

The three-member “fact-finding mission” and their team, working under a mandate from the UN-backed Human Rights Council, meticulously assembled hundreds of accounts from expatriate Rohingya, as well as satellite footage and other information to assemble the report.

“The military’s contempt for human life, dignity and freedom, for international law in general, should be a cause of concern for the entire population of Myanmar (Burma), and to the international community as a whole,” fact-finding mission chair Marzuki Darusman, a former Indonesian attorney-general, told a news conference.

The council created the mission in March last year, nearly six months before a string of deadly rebel attacks on security and police posts set off a crackdown that drove Rohingya to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh.

More than 700,000 people are thought to have fled, according to UN estimates.

The team compiled accounts of crimes including gang rape, the torching of hundreds of villages, enslavement, and killings of children, some before the eyes of their own parents.

But it was not granted access to Burma and has decried a lack of co-operation or even response from the government, which received an early copy of the report.

The UK’s ambassador to the UN, Karen Pierce, said she was “not confident” the UN Security Council would unanimously back referral to the International Criminal Court.

“To date Russia and China have taken a different view of ICC referral and without acceptance by them of a referral then I’m afraid it will be very difficult for the Security Council to take that step,” she told Channel 4 News.

Ms Pierce said Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi had not been “as bold or as firm as she could have been” in dealing with the violence, but added: “The responsibility does not primarily lie with the Burmese government but with the Burmese military, and it is their role that needs a proper judicial investigation and accountability mechanism.”

Minister for the UN Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon will use a speech at the UN Security Council on Tuesday to urge the international community to increase financial support for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Lord Ahmad, who is set to call for the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing to be brought to justice, said: “The UK is playing a leading role in bringing an end to this crisis. We need an international political consensus to bring the appalling humanitarian situation to an end.

“Bangladesh has done more than its fair share to help the refugees. Now it’s the turn of other countries to step up, and provide the money that will help support both refugees and the communities that support them, and for international partners to act together to ensure justice for the victims of the crisis.”