UNITED NATIONS-authorised investigators called today for Myanmar military leaders to be prosecuted for genocide against Rohingya Muslims, taking the unusual step of identifying six by name.

Their call, accompanying a first report by the three-member “fact-finding mission” and their team, working under a mandate from the UN human rights council, amounts to some of the strongest language yet from UN officials.

They have meticulously assembled hundreds of accounts from expatriate Rohingya, as well as satellite footage and other information to assemble the report.

“The military’s contempt for human life, dignity and freedom — for international law in general — should be a cause of concern for the entire population of Myanmar and to the international community as a whole,” said mission chairman Marzuki Darusman, a former Indonesian attorney-general.

The council set up the mission in March last year, nearly six months before a string of deadly rebel attacks on security and police posts set off a crackdown that drove Rohingya to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh. The UN estimates that more than 700,000 have fled.

The team compiled accounts of crimes including gang rape, the torching of hundreds of villages, enslavement and child killings.

It was not granted access to Myanmar and has decried a lack of co-operation — or even response — from the government, which received an early copy of the report.

The team cited a “conservative” estimate from aid group Reporters Without Borders that 10,000 people were killed in the violence, though outside investigators have had no access to the affected regions, making precise accounting difficult.

Investigators said the situation in Myanmar should be referred to the International Criminal Court or, failing that, to a special tribunal.

Facebook reacted promptly to the report, removing 18 accounts and 52 pages associated with the Myanmar military, including the page of its commander-in-chief, just minutes after it was released.

Court proceedings for Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who are accused of violating state-secrets legislation while investigating violence against Rohingyas, were delayed yesterday on account of the judge’s ill health. An official said the verdict would now be given on September 3.