Alwaght-Myanmar regime troops "systematically targeted" Rohingya Muslim women for gang-rape during ethnic cleansing against the minority Muslim community which triggered an exodus to Bangladesh, an UN special envoy said Sunday.
Pramila Patten, a special representative of the UN Secretary-General on sexual violence in conflict, made the comments after visiting Bangladesh's southeastern district of Cox's Bazar where some 610,000 Rohingya have taken refuge in the last ten weeks.
Many of these atrocities "could be crimes against humanity", she said.
"I heard horrific stories of rape and gang-rape, with many of the women and girls who died as a result of the rape," Patten told reporters in Dhaka.
"My observations point to a pattern of widespread atrocities, including sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls who have been systematically targeted on account of their ethnicity and religion."
The sexual violence in Myanmar's northern state of Rakhine was "commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the armed forces of Myanmar", she said.
"The forms of sexual violence we consistently heard about from survivors include gang-rape by multiple soldiers, forced public nudity and humiliation and sexual slavery in military captivity." "One survivor described being held in captivity by the Myanmar armed forces for 45 days, during which time she was repeatedly raped. Others still bore visible scars, bruises and bite marks attesting to their ordeal," Patten added.
Since Aug. 25, over 610,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh fleeing, according to the UN.
The refugees are fleeing a military operation in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched Rohingya villages. According to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, around 3,000 Rohingya have been killed in the crackdown. Other sources put the casualties figure at over 6,000.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has described the plight of Rohingya Muslims as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
