Ambassador Larry Dinger
Adviser
U.S. Mission to the United Nations
New York City
October 22, 2019
AS DELIVERED
Chairperson Darusman, the United States thanks you and the Fact-Finding Mission for your work. The United States applauds the invaluable and well-researched documentation of what your Mission has called “deeply entrenched impunity” in Myanmar.
The United States welcomes the FFM’s recent reports, including the report on the military’s economic interests and the report on the use of sexual- and gender-based violence by the military and other armed actors.
We urge the Government of Myanmar to acknowledge human rights abuses, to hold the perpetrators accountable, and to lay the groundwork for reconciliation and justice for victims, including by establishing conditions that will allow for safe, dignified, and voluntary returns of Rohingya and members of other communities displaced by violence across Myanmar.
We implore Member States to heed the FFM’s recommendation to take steps, in the absence of action by the Government of Myanmar, to promote justice, accountability, and non-recurrence, and to take targeted actions against perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses.
We regret deeply the lack of cooperation afforded to the FFM by the Government of Myanmar, and we ask the government to cooperate with international human rights mechanisms, including the Special Rapporteur for the Human Rights Situation in Myanmar and the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar.
The United States welcomes the Secretary-General’s appointment of Nick Koumjian [koom jin] to head the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, and we call on all countries to take steps to support and facilitate the work of the IIMM.
Mr. Darusman, we would like to pose two questions. What actions can the international community take to change the behavior of Myanmar security forces and others responsible for the egregious human rights abuses and violations that the Fact-Finding Mission documented? And second, what can we do to reduce the military’s economic influence in Myanmar?
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