UNITED NATIONS
(Reuters) - A top U.N. official recounted to the Security Council on Tuesday
“heartbreaking and horrific accounts of sexual atrocities” by Myanmar soldiers
against Rohingya Muslim women, urging the body to visit the region and demand
an end to attacks on civilians.
Pramila Patten,
special envoy of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on sexual violence in
conflict, said one woman told her she was held by Myanmar troops for 45 days
and raped repeatedly, while another woman could no longer see out of one eye
after it was bitten by a soldier during a sexual assault.
“Some witnesses
reported women and girls being tied to either a rock or a tree before multiple
soldiers raped them to death,” Patten told the Security Council.
“Some women
recounted how soldiers drowned babies in the village well. A few women told me
how their own babies were allegedly thrown in the fire as they were dragged away
by soldiers and gang raped,” she said.
Patten said the
15-member Security Council should visit Myanmar - also known as Burma - and
Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, where more than 626,000 refugees have fled to since
violence erupted in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State on Aug. 25.
She said that a
Security Council resolution demanding an immediate end to violations against
civilians in Rakhine state and outlining measures to hold the perpetrators
accountable “would send an important signal.”
Myanmar’s army released
a report last month denying all allegations of rapes and killings by security
forces.
“This is
unacceptable,” said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. “Burma
must allow an independent, transparent and credible investigation into what has
happened.”
“While we are
hearing promises from the government of Burma, we need to see action,” she
said.
Myanmar has been
stung by international criticism for the way its security forces responded to
Aug. 25 attacks by Rohingya militants on 30 security posts. Last month the
Security Council urged the Myanmar government to “ensure no further excessive
use of military force in Rakhine state.”
China’s Deputy U.N.
Ambassador Wu Haitao said the crisis had to be solved through an agreement
between Myanmar and Bangladesh and warned that any solution “reached under
strong pressure from outside may ease the situation temporarily but will leave
negative after effects.”
The two countries
signed an agreement on voluntary repatriation Nov. 23. U.N. political affairs
chief Jeffrey Feltman pushed on Tuesday for the United Nations to be involved
in any operation to return Rohingya.
“Plans alone are not
sufficient. We hope Myanmar will draw upon the wealth of expertise the U.N. can
offer,” Feltman told the Security Council.