Myanmar army should be removed from politics: UN probe

YANGON AFP, Sept18, 2018  -Myanmar’s powerful army should be removed from politics, UN investigators said Tuesday, as they released the final part of a damning report reiterating calls for top generals to be prosecuted for “genocide” against the Rohingya Muslim minority.   

A brutal military crackdown last year forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee over the border to Bangladesh.   

The UN’s 444-page probe called for the military’s top leadership to be replaced and for the institution - locally known as the Tatmadaw to have no further influence over the country’s governance. 

 
Myanmar’s military dominates the Buddhist-majority country, holding a quarter of seats in parliament and controlling three ministries.   

But the report said that the country’s civilian leadership “should further pursue the removal of the Tatmadaw from Myanmar’s political life”, referring to the nation’s armed forces.   

The UN’s meticulously detailed analysis, based on 18 months’ work and more than 850 in-depth interviews, calls on the international community to investigate military top brass for genocide, including commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing.   

Myanmar’s army has denied nearly all wrongdoing, insisting the military campaign was justified to root out Rohingya insurgents.   

But the UN team said the military’s tactics had been “consistently and grossly disproportionate to actual security threats”.