Feb. 4 (UPI) — A United Nations report detailed widespread human rights violations against the Rohingya population in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights released a flash report based on interviews of hundreds of people who fled Myanmar after attacks on a border post in October and documented the “very likely commission of crimes against humanity” by the country’s security forces.
Reports described killings of adults, young children and babies, mass gang-rape, brutal beatings, disappearances, random shootings and buildings being burned down by the army, police and civilian mobs.
“What kind of ‘clearance operation’ is this? What national security goals could possibly be served by this?” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
The U.N. estimated that nearly 66,000 people fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh since Oct. 9, 2016.
A total of 220 people were interviewed for the report, 65 percent of whom witnessed killings, while nearly 50 percent had family members who were murdered, CNN reported.
Of the 101 women interviewed in the report, more than half said they were raped raped or faced other kinds of sexual violence.
High Commissioner Zeid called for the international community and Myamar’s government to react strongly to the grave allegations.
“The Government of Myanmar must immediately halt these grave human rights violations against its own people, instead of continuing to deny they have occurred, and accepts the responsibility to ensure that victims have access to justice, reparations and safety,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Myanar’s government Aye Aye Soe said the government is “very concerned about the allegations” after seeing the report.
“The Investigation Commission headed by the vice president will look into it. If evidences of the violations are found we will definitely take action on them,” she told CNN.
