MAUNGDAW, Myanmar (Reuters) - Britain’s U.N. envoy on Tuesday suggested the U.N. Security Council could consider helping Myanmar collect evidence of crimes committed during a military crackdown of the Rohingya people, denounced by the world body as ethnic cleansing after most recent bout of persecution of the Muslim minority last year. The 15-member delegation co-led by Security Council President Gustavo Meza-Cuadra was joined by Rakhine state and central government officials and ministers heading to Maungdaw in northern Rakhine where the Myanmar government has built reception camps for the Rohingya refugees now living in camps and other temporary shelters in Bangladesh. “It has to be safe and voluntary and dignified, without conditions, without restrictions, without any complications.”

Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed in December to begin repatriating the refugees in January, but there were concerns among rights groups and Rohingya that they would be forced to return and face unsafe conditions in Myanmar. "The sad thing is there’s nothing we can do right today that will make their distress any less.”

The Security Council envoys – who will travel to Myanmar on Monday and meet with its de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi – also visited a dry and dusty Kutupalong refugee camp that housed many of the nearly 700,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state. UN and rights groups say nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh after a military crackdown launched in Rakhine State in August that the United Nations denounced as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. In its counterinsurgency sweeps in Rakhine state after the attacks last August on security personnel, Myanmar’s military was accused of massive human rights violations, including rape, killing, torture, and the burning of Rohingya homes, that U.N. and U.S. officials have called ethnic cleansing. SITTWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - Myanmar’s military has assured the United Nations of “harsh” action against perpetrators of sexual violence, state media reported on Tuesday, as U.N. envoys traveled to Rakhine State where the military conducted a widely criticized crackdown.
Myanmar's military pledges to a U.N. delegation visiting Rakhine State that they will take "harsh" action against perpetrators of sexual violence in the region. The U.N. previously accused Myanmar's military of committing an ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.