Myanmar army chief attacks UN after genocide report

Striking a defiant tone, Myanmar’s army chief says the United Nations has no right to meddle in his country’s “internal” issues, a week after the world body’s investigators called for him and fellow top generals to stand trial for “genocide” against minority Rohingya Muslims.

In a report released last Tuesday, UN investigators had said Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims faced four of five prohibited acts defined as genocide at the hands of Myanmar’s military in the northwestern state of Rakhine, where the minority group is mainly based.

The report also said Myanmar’s military – which has members in the parliament — should be removed from politics and stripped of further influence over the country’s governance.

Hours later, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said it had opened a preliminary into the military’s crimes, including killings, sexual violence and forced deportations, against the Rohingya Muslims, hundreds of thousands of whom have fled their villages in Rakhine to neighboring Bangladesh.