Geneva — Myanmar’s security forces may be guilty of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority, many more of whom are fleeing despite a deal between Myanmar and Bangladesh to send them home, the top UN human rights official said on Tuesday. The UN defines genocide as acts meant to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in whole or in part. Such a designation is rare under international law, but has been used in contexts including Bosnia, Sudan and an Islamic State campaign against Yazidi communities in Iraq and Syria. Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was addressing a special session of the Human Rights Council which later adopted a resolution condemning "the very likely commission of crimes against humanity" by security forces and others against Rohingya. Myanmar’s ambassador Htin Lynn said his government "dissociated" itself from the text and denounced what he called "politicisation and partiality". Zeid, who has described the campaign...

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