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U.N. Should Not ‘Interfere’ In Rohingya Crisis, Myanmar Army Chief Says
Myanmar’s powerful army chief said the United Nations has no right to interfere in the sovereignty of his country, a week after U.N. investigators called for him and other top generals to be prosecuted for “genocide” against the Rohingya.
The defiant response is the army chief’s first public reaction since a U.N. fact-finding mission urged the Security Council to refer Myanmar’s top military brass to the International Criminal Court.
Min Aung Hlaing also shrugged off demands from the U.N. for the army to get out of political life in Myanmar, where it remains hugely influential despite a nominal transition to civilian rule in 2011.
No country, organization or group has the “right to interfere in and make decision over sovereignty of a country,” the military-run newspaper Myawady reported Min telling troops in a speech Sunday. “Talks to meddle in internal affairs (cause) misunderstanding.”
The 444-page U.N. probe report, compiled over 18 months, outlines in meticulous and searing detail claims of atrocities against the Rohingya, who fled a violent military campaign that started in August last year.
Troops, sometimes aided by ethnic Rakhine mobs, committed murder, rape, arson and torture, using unfathomable levels of violence and with a total disregard for human life, investigators concluded.
More than 700,000 of the stateless Muslim minority took refuge in Bangladesh, where they remain, fearful of returning to Myanmar despite a repatriation deal between the two countries.
The military has denied nearly all wrongdoing, justifying its crackdown as a legitimate means of rooting out Rohingya militants.
But rights groups and the U.N. say the operations were vastly disproportionate and that a troop buildup in the area occurred before insurgents attacked police posts in August 2017.
In a further ratcheting up of pressure on Myanmar, the world court independently ruled that it has jurisdiction to open a preliminary investigation, even though the country has not signed the treaty underpinning the court.
Analysts say, however, that any road to prosecution would be long and fraught with political difficulties.
Last month Facebook removed the pages of Min Aung Hlaing and other top generals, accusing them of sowing ethnic divisions in a country where the social media platform enjoys excessive influence.
Myanmar’s civilian government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, rejected the U.N. report’s finding as “one-sided” and “flawed,” and dismissed the ICC’s authority.
Suu Kyi’s government shares power with the still-mighty army, which retains control over a quarter of parliamentary seats and three key ministries.
The U.N. team also criticized the Nobel laureate’s government for “acts and omissions” that had “contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes.”
In a rare, if understated, criticism of the military, Suu Kyi recently said that the Rakhine crisis “could have been handled better.”
The army chief made it clear that the Tatmadaw, as the military is known locally, has no intention to extract itself from politics.
“Take a look at the democracy practices in the world, the countries exercise the democracy system suited to them,” he said, adding that the country needs to end armed conflict on its road to true multiparty democracy.
“The Tatmadaw will continue its efforts to achieve eternal peace,” he said.
The Rohingya languishing in refugee camps in Bangladesh refuse to return to a Myanmar that does not grant them citizenship.
In his speech the army chief doubled down on the narrative widely held in Myanmar that the minority are outsiders, calling them “Bengalis” and insisting that the law, which does not recognize the group among the country’s many ethnicities, will remain in place.
Credit: AFP-JIJI
Pope Leo XIV will be admitted to hospital on Tuesday morning for an operation to remove a lump from his lung, the Vatican said.
The 71-year-old Leo announced on Sunday that he would undergo an operation “in the coming days”.
The surgery to remove a pulmonary nodule, a small growth of tissue in the lung, will mark the pope’s first hospitalisation since he became head of the 1.4 billion Catholics on May 8, 2025.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told AFP on Monday that the pontiff would be admitted on “Tuesday, late morning”.
The recovery time could be about a week, the Vatican said.
The operation is expected to take place at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, which has a dedicated papal suite.
In a surprise announcement following Angelus prayers on Sunday, Leo told assembled crowds in St Peter’s Square that doctors had discovered the nodule “at a very early stage” during recent medical checks.
“The doctors believe it would be right to intervene and so, following their advice, I have decided to have the operation to remove it,” he said.
A pulmonary nodule is a small growth in the lung. Most are benign, meaning they are non-cancerous. But a small percentage can be an early stage of lung cancer.
Most small nodules cause no symptoms and are only discovered during checks for other health issues.
Larger nodules can cause shortness of breath, chest pain and persistent coughing — sometimes with blood.
The operation is normally carried out under general anaesthetic with the patient breathing through a tube.
Rome’s Gemelli hospital, north of the Vatican, is where popes are usually treated.
Foreign ministers from 30 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Germany, have condemned Iran over alleged violent attacks, sabotage, cyber-attacks and other hostile activities targeting their countries and partners.
The ministers, in a joint statement published by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on Monday, also expressed support for Britain’s attribution of Iran’s involvement in an incident at the Royal Air Force Fairford base on September 27.
The statement said the UK had concluded that the incident demonstrated the continued willingness of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to project hostile activities beyond its borders through covert networks and proxy actors.
“We recognise the United Kingdom’s attribution of Iran’s involvement in the incident at RAF Fairford on 27 September,” the ministers said.
“The UK has also concluded this event demonstrates the IRGC’s continued willingness to project hostile activity beyond its borders through covert networks and proxy actors.”
The joint statement comes amid concerns over what the ministers described as a recent campaign of attacks across Europe targeting Jewish communities, Iranian journalists and United States interests.
According to the statement, the attacks were claimed by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, also known as HAYI.
The ministers condemned what they described as Iran’s use of violent attacks, including lethal plotting, arson, sabotage, cyber-attacks and other forms of hybrid activity against their countries and partners.
They warned that attempts to threaten, silence, intimidate, harass, harm or coerce people within their territories through proxies or other means would not be tolerated.
“Anyone who conducts hostile activities on behalf of Iran, or any other state, should know that we will take action to identify, investigate, disrupt, and prosecute these acts,” the statement said.
The countries also pledged to strengthen international coordination, bolster national resilience, protect their communities and ensure that those responsible for hostile activities were held accountable.
“Iran should be in no doubt that we are united and remain committed to safeguarding our sovereignty and strengthening our international coordination, bolstering our national resilience, protecting our communities, and ensuring that those responsible are held to account,” the ministers said.
The joint statement was issued by foreign ministers from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Days after, a UK probe into a suspected bomb plot at an airbase used by the United States was mired in confusion, after the media reported no explosives were detected in vehicles seized nearby. https://punchng.com/mystery-over-uk-airbase-scare-after-reports-of-no-explosives-found/?amp
As armed guards maintained a cordon around a nearby village, Washington questioned the decision to release on bail five men arrested near the Royal Air Force Fairford base in Southwest England.
Three white vans were discovered near the base on Sunday and the men, all London-based Britons in their mid-20s, were detained.
Armed police were also visible on Tuesday, September 29, patrolling around the airfield used by US planes to bomb some targets in Iran.
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday announced he would be operated “in the coming days” for a lump on his lung, saying it had been located “at a very early stage”.
“During recent medical checks, a nodule on my lung was found. It has been detected at a very early stage and is very localised,” the 71-year-old said in a weekly address in St Peter’s Square.
“The doctors believe it would be right to intervene and so, following their advice, I have decided to have the operation to remove it. The operation is already planned in the coming days,” he said.
Following the pope’s statement during his Angelus prayers, the Vatican press office said the expected recovery time from the operation would be around one week.
Chicago-born Leo became the first US pope last year following the death of his Argentine predecessor Francis on April 21, 2025 at the age of 88.
Francis spent weeks at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where popes traditionally go for medical treatment.
Leo was elected leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics on May 8, 2025.
The former Robert Francis Prevost, while less ebullient than his predecessor, has gradually imprinted his style on the leadership of the Catholic Church, finding his voice as he takes on some of the world’s most pressing issues, from bloody conflicts to artificial intelligence.
After the US and Israel launched a war against Iran in February, the pope became a high-profile critic of the conflict.
He condemned US President Donald Trump’s threat to destroy Iran as “truly unacceptable” and urged Americans to demand that US lawmakers “work for peace”.
Trump slammed the pontiff as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” — to which Leo replied that he had a “moral duty to speak out”.
AFP
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