September 27, 2018: When the U.N. formed a body to look into Myanmar human rights abuses

Rohingya refugees are reflected in rainwater along an embankment next to paddy fields after fleeing from Myanmar into Palang Khali, near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on November 2, 2017.

The United Nations Human Rights Council voted on September 27, 2018 to set up an international body to help prepare evidence of human rights abuses in Myanmar for any future prosecution. The 47-member Council voted by 35 votes to three, with seven abstentions, in favour of a resolution brought by the European Union and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. China, the Philippines and Burundi voted against the move. Myanmar Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun said the resolution was based on the report of a U.N. fact-finding mission that his government had categorically rejected,

and which was unbalanced, one-sided and encouraged disunity of the country. The U.N. report said Myanmar’s military

had carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya with “genocidal intent”. The military crackdown in

Rakhine in August 2017, following insurgent attacks, led to a mass exodus of 7,50,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh.