Myanmar has rejected a UN report which called for top Burmese military figures to be investigated for genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Government spokesman Zaw Htay said the country didn’t agree with or accept “any resolutions made by the Human Rights Council”.
China had earlier also decried the UN report, saying putting pressure on Myanmar was “not helpful”.
Zaw Htay said Myanmar had zero tolerance for human rights violations. His statement is the government’s response to the unprecedented UN report, which was published on Monday.
“We didn’t allow the FFM [the UN Fact-Finding Mission] to enter into Myanmar, that’s why we don’t agree and accept any resolutions made by the Human Rights Council,” Zaw Htay told state news outlet the Global New Light of Myanmar.
He said Myanmar had its own Independent Commission of Enquiry to respond to “false allegations made by the UN agencies and other international communities”.
Myanmar’s army has previously cleared itself of wrongdoing.
China, which has a close economic and diplomatic relationship with Myanmar, had earlier said the “historical, religious and ethnic background of the Rakhine issue” was “extremely complex”.
“Unilteral criticism or exerting pressure is actually not helpful in resolving the problem,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
The military launched a crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state last year after Rohingya militants carried out deadly attacks on police posts.
Thousands of people have died and more than 700,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.
There have also been widespread allegations of human rights abuses, including arbitrary killing, rape and burning of land over many years.
The UN’s wide-ranging and damning report named six senior military figures, including army chief Min Aung Hlaing, who it said should be investigated for genocide, and called for the case to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
It said the violence of the past year had been “a catastrophe looming for decades”.
