Mizzima

The National Unity Government (NUG) has pledged to bring justice for crimes against the Rohingya and other minorities, through cooperation with national and international accountability mechanisms, including the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. 

In commemoration of the 6th anniversary of the atrocities committed by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya people in 2017, NUG issued a statement on 25 August expressing its commitments to create the conditions needed to bring the Rohingya and other displaced communities home in voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable ways. 

“Thousands of Rohingya were killed and disappeared. Rape and sexual violence, including mass gang rape, were used systematically to intimidate, terrorise and punish Rohingya women and girls. Hundreds of villages were razed. Lives were destroyed, and histories were erased,” the statement says.

The NUG also said that it recognizes the Rohingya people as an integral part of Myanmar and as nationals, and condemned the exclusionary and discriminatory policies, practices, and rhetoric that were long directed against the Rohingya and other religious and ethnic minorities in the country. 

It also promised to create the conditions needed to bring the Rohingya and other displaced communities back home in voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable ways, ensuring social change and to the complete overhaul of discriminatory laws in consultation with minority communities and their representatives.

The NUG has appointed a Rohingya leader as a deputy minister of human rights in their government to be able to present Rohingya perspectives in developing government policies and programmes and legislative reform. 

The statement also emphasizes Myanmar’s new Federal Democracy Charter to develop Myanmar into a nation founded on peace, justice, equality, human rights, and the protection of minorities.