UNITED NATIONS: Mya­­­n­mar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and head of the armed forces, Gen Aung Min Hlaing, could potentially face genocide charges in the fut­ure, United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein told the BBC.

“Given the scale of the military operation, clearly these would have to be decisions taken at a high enough level,” he said. “And then there’s the crime of omission. That if it came to your knowledge that this was being committed, and you did nothing to stop it, then you could be culpable as well for that.”

In September, Zeid called the treatment of Rohingyas in Myanmar “a textbook exa­­mple of ethnic cleansing.”

He said the situation cou­ld not yet be properly asses­sed because Myanmar had den­ied access to human rights investigators. Whe­ther genocide has been committed would eventually be determined by a court, not Zeid.

Suu Kyi has also been criticised by other Nobel laureates, including Malala Yousafzai.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2017