KUALA LUMPUR: The Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT) yesterday found the state of Myanmar guilty of the crime of genocide against the Kachin people and other Muslim groups, including the Rohingyas, reported Bernama yesterday.
In a unanimous decision, the seven-member panel headed by former International Association of Genocide Scholars president Daniel Feierstein ruled the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
“On the strength of the evidence presented, the Tribunal reached the consensus ruling that the State of Myanmar has the intent to commit genocide against the Kachin people and the other Muslim groups. Further, the State of Myanmar is guilty of the crime of genocide against the Rohingya group,” Feierstein was quoted as saying.
Reading out the judgment, Feierstein said all these unpunished crimes had been and were currently committed by the Myanmarese Army and by the regime in power in Myanmar who seemed to be part of a plan.
He also said there was intention to deny every expression of autonomy and self-government of the people of Kachin state and to humiliate and destroy the ethnic and cultural identity of minorities living in Burma.
Throughout a five-day trial at the Universiti Malaya Faculty of Law here which ended yesterday, the panel heard and analysed arguments by the prosecution, views of expert witnesses and victims’ testimonies.
Findings of the tribunal will be communicated to various UN Human Rights bodies including its Human Rights Council in Geneva and the Office of the Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide in New York.
