Saturday, Apr 20, 2024 | Last Update : 08:02 AM IST
Atrocities against Rohingyas may be war crimes: UN envoy
She said that the widespread use of sexual violence “was clearly a driver and push factor” for more than 620,000 Rohingya to flee Myanmar.
New York: Widespread atrocities against Rohingya Muslim women and girls have been orchestrated and perpetrated by Myanmar’s military and may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the UN envoy on sexual violence in conflict said on Thursday.
Pramila Patten, who met many Rohingya 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.” She said 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 Rohingyas as a group,” she added.
