UN envoy: sex assaults on Rohingya women may be war crimes

Widespread atrocities against Rohingya Muslim women and girls said to have been committed by Myanmar’s military may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the UN envoy on sexual violence in conflict said on Wednesday.

Pramila Patten, who met many Rohingya claiming to be victims of sexual violence in Bangladesh camps during a visit this month, said she fully endorses the assessment by UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein that Rohingya have been victims of “ethnic cleansing”.

Patten said at a news conference that the widespread use of sexual violence “was clearly a driver and push factor” for more than 620,000 Rohingya to flee Myanmar. It was “also a calculated tool of terror aimed at the extermination and removal of the Rohingya as a group”, she said.

Myanmar’s government has denied committing any atrocities – as has its military. The government refused a request from Patten to visit northern Rakhine state where many Rohingya lived.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar doesn’t recognise the Rohingya as an ethnic group, insisting they are Bengali immigrants from Bangladesh living illegally in the country. It has denied them citizenship, leaving them stateless.