Myanmar's security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned down villages since October in a campaign that likely amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing, according to the United Nations.

"The 'area clearance operations' have likely resulted in hundreds of deaths," a report from the UN's human rights office said, referring to a military crackdown launched in the wake of an attack on a military post.

Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said that Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi promised on Friday to investigate the allegations.

"She informed me that an investigation will be launched. She said that they would require further information," he said.

The report, which was based on interviews with 204 Rohingya refugees who fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, recounted gruesome violations allegedly carried out by members of Myanmar's security services or civilian fighters working alongside the army and the police.

Of the 101 women interviewed, more than half said they had been raped or sexually assaulted.

Several women told UN investigators how their young children, including a newborn, were trampled or cut to death.

Security forces were also accused of opening fire at people fleeing and burning entire villages, as well as of "massive and systematic rape and sexual violence; deliberate destruction of food and sources of food".

Tun Khin, a Rohingya activist, told Al Jazeera that the international community now needed to change what he called a "soft approach" towards Myanmar's government.

"Every day Rohingya are facing abuses and extrajudicial killings are going on," Khin, who heads the UK-based Burmese Rohingya Organisation, said.

"The [UN Security Council] has to come up with a strong binding resolution to take action against the Myanmar government," he said, adding that he was pushing hard for the issue to be tabled there.

IN PICTURES: Rohingya - Chased by Myanmar, unwelcome in Bangladesh

The UN said it had reports of three children aged six or younger being "slaughtered with knives".

"An eight-month-old baby was reportedly killed while his mother was gang-raped by five security officers," the rights office also said, citing witness accounts.

"What kind of hatred could make a man stab a baby crying out for his mother's milk," UN rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein said in the statement. "What kind of 'clearance operation' is this? What national security goals could possibly be served by this?"

Fleeing over the border

The Rohingya, numbering about 1.1 million, are loathed by many among Myanmar's Buddhist majority and live in apartheid-like conditions in the Muslim-majority Rakhine state in the north.

Yangon refuses to recognise the Rohingya as an ethnic minority, instead describing them as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, even though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.

The government's own investigation into the violence found that the security forces had not carried out a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya.

WATCH: Aung San Suu Kyi's shameful silence on the Rohingya

About 66,000 people have fled from Rakhine to Bangladesh since the army launched a security operation in response to attacks on police border posts on October 9, the report said. The UN humanitarian office has recently put the figure at 69,000.

The UN report was issued in Geneva after the investigators gathered testimony last month from Rohingya victims and witnesses who fled the "lockdown area" in Maungdaw in Rakhine for Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.</s>Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Almost half of the Rohingya interviewed by the UN said a family member had been killed

The UN has accused security forces in Myanmar of committing serious human rights abuses, including gang-rape, savage beatings and child killing.

It made the allegations in a damning report compiled after interviews with more than 200 Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh.

One mother recounted how her five-year-old daughter was murdered while trying to protect her from rape.

She said a man "took out a long knife and killed her by slitting her throat".

In another case, an eight-month-old baby was reportedly killed while five security officers gang-raped his mother.

An estimated 65,000 members of the Muslim minority community have fled to Bangladesh since violence broke out in Myanmar - also known as Burma - last October.

Nearly half of those interviewed by the UN said a family member had been killed. Of 101 women interviewed, 52 said they had been raped or experienced sexual violence from the security forces.

Many told investigators that members of the army or police had burned hundreds of Rohingya homes, schools, markets, shops, and mosques.

Numerous testimonies "confirmed that the army deliberately set fire to houses with families inside, and in other cases pushed Rohingyas into already burning houses", the report states.

Many victims said they were taunted as they were being beaten or raped, with the perpetrators telling them: "What can your Allah do for you? See what we can do?"

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rohingya Muslims "hated and hounded from Burmese soil"

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein said: "The cruelty to which these Rohingya children have been subjected is unbearable - what kind of hatred could make a man stab a baby crying out for his mother's milk?

"I call on the international community, with all its strength, to join me in urging the leadership in Myanmar to bring such military operations to an end."

The country's government and its de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi have previously dismissed claims of rights abuses and insisted that the security forces follow the rule of law.

However, Ms Suu Kyi's spokesman told the BBC that the latest allegations were extremely serious. The spokesman said officials would look into them immediately.</s>The UN says it has gathered evidence that Myanmar’s security forces committed mass rapes and killed young children in their crackdown on the Rohingya minority, according to a UN report that was published Friday.

“The report concludes that the widespread violations against the Rohingya population indicate the very likely commission of crimes against humanity,” the UN human rights office in Geneva said.

UN investigators interviewed some 200 refugees of the Muslim Rohingya group in Bangladesh, who fled a security operation in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state that has spiralled out of control since October.

Of the 101 women interviewed, more than half said they had been raped or sexually assaulted.

Several women told UN investigators how their young children, including a newborn, were trampled or cut to death.

“What kind of ‘clearance operation’ is this?

“What national security goals could possibly be served by this?” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said.

The security operation was launched in early October after nine border guards were killed, allegedly by Muslim men.

The UN report said that in addition to the killings and rapes, security forces had been involved in torture and in the disappearance of Rohingyas.

In addition, hundreds of Rohingya houses, fields, schools, markets, shops and mosques have been destroyed by security forces and mobs.

Entire families were burnt to death inside their homes, according to the report.

“The gravity and scale of these allegations begs the robust reaction of the international community,” Zeid said.</s>Myanmar’s security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that probably amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly “ethnic cleansing”, the UN human rights office said on Friday.

Witnesses testified to “the killing of babies, toddlers, children, women and elderly; opening fire at people fleeing; burning of entire villages; massive detention; massive and systematic rape and sexual violence; deliberate destruction of food and sources of food”, the report said.

One woman told UN investigators how her eight-month baby boy had had his throat slit. Another woman was raped by soldiers and saw her five-year-old daughter killed as she tried to stop them.

“The devastating cruelty to which these Rohingya children have been subjected is unbearable,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said in a statement.

“The ‘area clearance operations’ have likely resulted in hundreds of deaths,” some of them through helicopters shooting at villages and dropping grenades on them, the UN report said.

Four UN investigators gathered testimony last month from 220 Rohingya victims and witnesses who fled the “lockdown area” in Maungdaw in Rakhine for the Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh.

Nearly half reported a family member had been killed or disappeared while 101 women reported having been raped or subjected to sexual violence, it said.
• None India should tell Burma to end Rohingya abuses: HT Q&A with Meenakshi Ganguly of HRW

The investigators took evidence including photographs of bullet and knife wounds, burns, and injuries resulting from beatings with rifle butts or bamboo sticks.

The plight of the stateless Rohingya, of whom some 1.1 million live in apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine, has long been a source of friction between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Myanmar, a mostly Buddhist country where Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is de facto leader, has denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses in northern Rakhine and says a lawful counter-insurgency campaign is under way.

In Yangon, the spokesman for President Htin Kyaw’s office, said the government had not yet seen the report.

“We will review the report from the UN and we will respond, either in an official statement or in an individual response (to questions),” Zaw Htay said.

While denying observers and independent journalists access to the conflict area, officials have accused Rohingya residents and refugees of fabricating stories of killings, beatings, mass rape and arson in collaboration with insurgents who they say are Rohingya terrorists with links to Islamists overseas.

Zeid called for a robust reaction from the international community and said Myanmar must accept responsibility for committing grave human rights violations against its own people.

The report said the attacks on the Rohingya “seem to have been widespread as well as systematic, indicating the very likely commission of crimes against humanity”.

Bangladesh is determined to relocate Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar to an island in the Bay of Bengal, a Bangladeshi minister said on Wednesday. Critics say the island is uninhabitable. The minister said the move was temporary and Myanmar would ultimately have to take the Rohingya back.
• None 22,000 Rohingya from Myanmar fled to Bangladesh in one week, says UN</s>GENEVA: Myanmar´s security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that probably amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly "ethnic cleansing", the U.N. human rights office said on Friday.

Witnesses testified to "the killing of babies, toddlers, children, women and elderly; opening fire at people fleeing; burning of entire villages; massive detention; massive and systematic rape and sexual violence; deliberate destruction of food and sources of food", the report said.

One woman told U.N. investigators how her eight-month baby boy had had his throat slit.

Another was raped by soldiers and saw her five-year-old daughter killed as she tried to stop them.

"The devastating cruelty to which these Rohingya children have been subjected is unbearable," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra´ad al Hussein said in a statement.

Around 66,000 people have fled from the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine State to Bangladesh since Myanmar´s military launched a security operation in response to attacks on police border posts on Oct. 9, the U.N. report said.

The U.N. humanitarian office has recently put the figure at 69,000."The ´area clearance operations´ have likely resulted in hundreds of deaths," some of them through helicopters shooting at villages and dropping grenades on them, the report said.

Four U.N. investigators gathered testimony last month from 220 Rohingya victims and witnesses who fled the "lockdown area" in Maungdaw in Rakhine for the Cox´s Bazar district in Bangladesh.

Nearly half reported a family member had been killed or disappeared while 101 women reported having been raped or subjected to sexual violence, it said.

Testimonies pointed to "a persecution on ethnic grounds which is similar to what has been, in other contexts, described as ´ethnic cleansing´," U.N. mission leader Linnea Arvidsson told a news briefing.

"The findings and gravity of the situation are really so stark that something needs to be done -- for accountability, but primarily for the violence to stop."

She said the U.N. Human Rights Council could refer the issue to the U.N. Security Council, which in turn had the power to pass it to the International Criminal Court.

The investigators took evidence including photographs of bullet and knife wounds, burns, and injuries resulting from beatings with rifle butts or bamboo sticks.

The plight of the stateless Rohingya, of whom some 1.1 million live in apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine, has long been a source of friction between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Myanmar, a mostly Buddhist country where Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is de facto leader, has denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses in northern Rakhine and says a lawful counterinsurgency campaign is under way.

In Yangon, the spokesman for President Htin Kyaw’s office, said the government had not yet seen the report.

"We will review the report from the U.N. and we will respond, either in an official statement or in an individual response (to questions)," Zaw Htay said.

While denying observers and independent journalists access to the conflict area, officials have accused Rohingya residents and refugees of fabricating stories of killings, beatings, mass rape and arson in collaboration with insurgents who they say are Rohingya terrorists with links to Islamists overseas.

Zeid called for a robust reaction from the international community and said Myanmar must accept responsibility for committing grave human rights violations against its own people.

The report said the attacks on the Rohingya "seem to have been widespread as well as systematic, indicating the very likely commission of crimes against humanity".

Myanmar army killed and gang raped Rohingya Muslims: UN was posted in World of TheNews International - https://www.thenews.com.pk on February 03, 2017 and was last updated on February 03, 2017. This news story is related to Latest/183784-Myanmar-army-killed-and-gang-raped-Rohingya-Muslims-UN/ - breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne. Permanent link to the news story "Myanmar army killed and gang raped Rohingya Muslims: UN" is https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/183784-Myanmar-army-killed-and-gang-raped-Rohingya-Muslims-UN.</s>Myanmar’s security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that “very likely” amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing, the UN human rights office said on Friday. Witnesses had testified to “the killing of babies, toddlers, children, women and elderly; opening fire at people fleeing; burning of entire villages; massive detention; massive and systematic rape and sexual violence; deliberate destruction of food and sources of food”, the report said.

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One woman told UN investigators how her eight-month baby boy had had his throat slit. Another was raped by soldiers and saw her five-year-old daughter killed as she tried to stop them.

 “The devastating cruelty to which these Rohingya children have been subjected is unbearable,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said in a statement.

 “The ‘area clearance operations’ have likely resulted in hundreds of deaths,” the UN report said.

Around 66,000 people have fled from the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine State to Bangladesh since Myanmar’s military launched a security operation in response to attacks on police border posts on Oct. 9, the UN report said. The UN humanitarian office has recently put the figure at 69,000.

The U.N. report was issued in Geneva after the investigators gathered testimony last month from 220 Rohingya victims and witnesses who fled the “lockdown area” in Maungdaw in Rakhine for the Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh.

The plight of the stateless Rohingya, of whom some 1.1 million live in apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine, has long been a source of friction between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

 Myanmar has denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses in northern Rakhine and says a lawful counterinsurgency campaign is under way.

While denying observers and independent journalists access to the conflict area, officials have accused Rohingya residents and refugees of fabricating stories of killings, beatings, mass rape and arson in collaboration with insurgents who they say are Rohingya terrorists with links to Islamists overseas.

Zeid called for a robust reaction from the international community and said Myanmar must accept responsibility for committing grave human rights violations against its own people.

“What kind of hatred could make a man stab a baby crying out for his mother’s milk? And for the mother to witness this murder while she is being gang-raped by the very security forces who should be protecting her – what kind of ‘clearance operation’ is this?” he asked.

“What national security goals could possibly be served by this?”

Bangladesh is determined to relocate Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar to an island in the Bay of Bengal, a Bangladeshi minister said on Wednesday. Critics say the island is uninhabitable. The minister said the move was temporary and Myanmar would ultimately have to take the Rohingyas back.</s>Also on Monday, the top U.N. human rights official issued a report saying the Rohingya have been deprived of nationality and undergone systematic discrimination and severe restrictions on movements. They have also suffered executions and torture that together may amount to crimes against humanity, the report said.

Members of the 1.1 million group, who identify themselves by the term Rohingya, are seen by many Myanmar Buddhists as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The term is a divisive issue.

The U.N. human rights investigator, Yanghee Lee, met Suu Kyi in the capital Naypyitaw on her first trip to Myanmar since the Nobel Peace Prize winner took power in April.

"At their meeting here this morning, our Foreign Minister Daw Aung San Suu Kyi explained our stance on this issue that the controversial terms should be avoided," said Aung Lin, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Suu Kyi is banned from presidency by the military-drafted constitution because her children have British citizenship. She holds offices of the State Counsellor and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, but is the de facto leader of the administration.

Feted in the West for her role as champion of Myanmar's democratic opposition during long years of military rule and house arrest, Suu Kyi has been criticized overseas, and by some in Myanmar, for saying little about the abuses faced by the Rohingya.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in the report the Rohingya are excluded from a number of professions and need special paperwork to access hospitals, which has resulted in delays and deaths of babies and their mothers during childbirth.

It was the first time Zeid said these and other long-standing violations could add up to crimes against humanity, an international crime. Crimes against humanity are serious, widespread and systematic violations.

Some 120,000 Rohingya remain displaced in squalid camps since fighting erupted in Rakhine State between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012. Thousands have fled persecution and poverty.

"The new Government has inherited a situation where laws and policies are in place that are designed to deny fundamental rights to minorities, and where impunity for serious violations against such communities has encouraged further violence against them," Zeid said.

Reversing such discrimination must be a priority for the new government "to halt ongoing violations and prevent further ones taking place against Myanmar’s ethnic and religious minorities," Zeid said.

Suu Kyi has formed a committee to "bring peace and development" to the state in May, but its plans are not clear.

On Friday, Myanmar's representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Thet Thinzar Tun, criticized use of "certain nomenclature" by a U.N. representative as "adding fuel to fire" and "only making things worse".

"For the sake of harmony and mutual trust between two communities, it is advisable for everyone to use the term 'the Muslim community in Rakhine State'," she said, according to the United Nations.

Suu Kyi said during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last month that the country needed "space" to deal with the Rohingya issue and cautioned against the use of "emotive terms" that she said were making the situation more difficult.

The previous military-linked government of former junta General Thein Sein referred to the group as "Bengalis", implying they were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.

Lee, the U.N. Special Rapporteur, will meet several cabinet members and travel to areas where ethnic armed groups fight the military and sometimes between themselves, including Shan, Kachin and Rakhine states.</s>Witnesses had also testified to the 'killing of babies, toddlers, children, women and elderly; opening fire at people fleeing; burning of entire villages; massive detention and the deliberate destruction of food and sources of food', according to the report Myanmar's security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that probably amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly "ethnic cleansing", the UN human rights office said on Friday.

Start the conversation, or Read more at South China Morning Post.</s>U.N. human rights investigators have chronicled new accounts of crimes including beatings, disappearances, gang rapes and brutal killings of children as young as 8 months old, by Myanmar security forces against the Muslim Rohingya minority.

 

 A 43-page report from the United Nations human rights office released Friday says crimes against humanity were “very likely” committed, and cites accounts from “in-depth interviews” by U.N. staffers of 204 people who had fled to neighboring Bangladesh since October, when Myanmar's military started a crackdown following attacks on border posts.

 

 “The vast majority reported witnessing killings, and almost half reported having a family member who was killed as well as family members who were missing,” rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. “Of the 101 women interviewed, more than half reported having suffered rape or other forms of sexual violence.”

 

 The report is likely to raise pressure on the governing party of Nobel Peace Prize-winning Aung San Suu Kyi amid numerous allegations that soldiers have been killing and raping Rohingya and burning their homes, and targeting people based on their religion and ethnicity. The Rohingya have long faced discrimination in Rakhine state, where many Rohingya live and tensions have been high with the Buddhist community.

Mosques were occupied by soldiers, used as sites for rape or burned down, the report said. 

 

 Shamdasani cited “especially revolting” accounts of children being “slaughtered with knives” and said one 8-month-old infant was reportedly killed while his mother was gang-raped by five security officers.

 

 “What kind of hatred could make a man stab a baby crying out for his mother's milk?” U.N. rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in a statement.

 

 Zeid, a Jordanian prince known by his first name, deployed the team after Myanmar's government denied repeated requests for access to the worst-hit areas of Rakhine state. The regions are also almost totally closed off to journalists.

 

 He called on Myanmar's government to “immediately halt these grave human rights violations.” The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said reports indicated that the intensity and frequency of security forces' operations had declined this year, but are continuing.

 

 Shamdasani said the allegations in the report had been presented to Myanmar authorities, but she declined to indicate what the response was, deferring to government officials.</s>GENEVA: Myanmar's security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that probably amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly "ethnic cleansing", the U.N. human rights office said on Friday.

Witnesses testified to "the killing of babies, toddlers, children, women and elderly; opening fire at people fleeing; burning of entire villages; massive detention; massive and systematic rape and sexual violence; deliberate destruction of food and sources of food", the report said.

One woman told U.N. investigators how her eight-month baby boy had had his throat slit. Another was raped by soldiers and saw her five-year-old daughter killed as she tried to stop them.

“The devastating cruelty to which these Rohingya children have been subjected is unbearable," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said in a statement.

"I did speak to Aung San Suu Kyi about an hour and a half ago. I called upon her to use every means available to exert pressure on the military and the security services to end this operation," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in an interview with Reuters in Geneva.

"She informed me that an investigation will be launched. She said that they would require further information."

In Yangon, presidential spokesman Zaw Htay said: "These are extremely serious allegations, and we are deeply concerned. We will be immediately investigating these allegations through the investigation commission led by Vice-President U Myint Swe.

"Where there is clear evidence of abuses and violations, we will take all necessary action."

Around 66,000 people have fled from the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine State to Bangladesh since Myanmar's military launched a security operation in response to attacks on police border posts on Oct. 9, the U.N. report said. The U.N. humanitarian office has recently put the figure at 69,000.

"The 'area clearance operations' have likely resulted in hundreds of deaths," some of them through helicopters shooting at villages and dropping grenades on them, the report said.

Four U.N. investigators gathered testimony last month from 220 Rohingya victims and witnesses who fled the "lockdown area" in Maungdaw in Rakhine for the Cox's Bazar district in Bangladesh.

Nearly half reported a family member had been killed or disappeared while 101 women reported having been raped or subjected to sexual violence, it said.

Testimonies pointed to "a persecution on ethnic grounds which is similar to what has been, in other contexts, described as 'ethnic cleansing'," U.N. mission leader Linnea Arvidsson told a news briefing.

"The findings and gravity of the situation are really so stark that something needs to be done -- for accountability, but primarily for the violence to stop."

She said the U.N. Human Rights Council could refer the issue to the U.N. Security Council, which in turn had the power to pass it to the International Criminal Court.

The investigators took evidence including photographs of bullet and knife wounds, burns, and injuries resulting from beatings with rifle butts or bamboo sticks.

The plight of the stateless Rohingya, of whom some 1.1 million live in apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine, has long been a source of friction between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Myanmar, a mostly Buddhist country where Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is de facto leader, has denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses in northern Rakhine and says a lawful counterinsurgency campaign is under way.

In Yangon, the spokesman for President Htin Kyaw’s office, said the government had not yet seen the report.

"We will review the report from the U.N. and we will respond, either in an official statement or in an individual response (to questions)," Zaw Htay said.

While denying observers and independent journalists access to the conflict area, officials have accused Rohingya residents and refugees of fabricating stories of killings, beatings, mass rape and arson in collaboration with insurgents who they say are Rohingya terrorists with links to Islamists overseas.

Zeid called for a robust reaction from the international community and said Myanmar must accept responsibility for committing grave human rights violations against its own people.

The report said the attacks on the Rohingya "seem to have been widespread as well as systematic, indicating the very likely commission of crimes against humanity"
The United Nations Human Rights Council releases a report detailing mass atrocities by the military and police forces against Myanmar's Rohingya minority, including gang-rapes, mass killings, and possible ethnic cleansing, which could amount to crimes against humanity.