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United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein addresses the Human Rights
Council 26th
Special Session on the human rights
situation in South Sudan, Geneva,
Switzerland, and
December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy
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The UN investigators' report said the actions by security forces probably amounted to crimes against humanity
* UN investigators' report
based on 220 interviews
* Report details killings,
gang rapes, burning of villages
* Rohingya likely to be
victims of crimes against humanity (Recasts after Reuters interview with Zeid;
govt reaction)
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Feb 3 (Reuters) -
The top United Nations human rights official said Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu
Kyi promised on Friday to investigate U.N. allegations of atrocities against
Rohingya Muslims.
Security forces and police
have committed mass killings and gang rapes and burned villages in northern
Rakhine state, a U.N. investigation published on Friday found.
"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."
Myanmar, a mostly Buddhist
country, has previously denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses
against Muslims in northern Rakhine and says a lawful counterinsurgency
campaign is under way.
Since it began on Oct. 9,
about 69,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh. The U.N. report was
based on accounts gathered in January from 220 of them.
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".
One woman described her
baby's throat being slit. Another was raped by soldiers and saw her
five-year-old daughter killed.
The report said the actions
by security forces probably amounted to crimes against humanity.
"HORRORS"
Zeid said the perpetrators
of such "horrors" must be held to account. Possible avenues would be
the establishment of an international commission of inquiry or the involvement
of the International Criminal Court.
The report described
"area clearance operations" - gunfire and grenades dropped on
villages from helicopters - which probably killed hundreds.
Nearly half of those
interviewed said a family member had been killed or disappeared while 101 women
reported having been raped or subjected to sexual violence.
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 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.
Many Rohingya had hoped that
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, would work to restore their rights once
her civilian administration took power in March last year.
But within weeks of the
latest crisis erupting, diplomats and aid workers were privatedly expressing
dismay at her lack of deeper involvement.
"I am not going to go
now into the extent to which she should have done more or less," Zeid
said. "There has to be some responsibility."
Officials have so far denied
observers and independent journalists access to the conflict area, while
accusing Rohingya of fabricating stories and collaborating with insurgents who
they say are terrorists with links to Islamists overseas.
(Additional reporting by Wa
Lone in Yangon; Editing by Tom Miles and Andrew Roche)