UN: Rohingya victims of crimes against humanity

Widespread and ongoing violations against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority, including denial of citizenship, forced labour and sexual violence, could amount to crimes against humanity, the United Nations warned Monday.

In a report on the human rights situation for minorities in Myanmar, the UN human rights office said it had found “a pattern of gross violations against the Rohingya... (which) suggest a widespread or systematic attack... In turn giving rise to the possible commission of crimes against humanity if established in a court of law.”

The report was published amid hope that Myanmar’s new government, steered by Aung San Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy party, will address deep hatreds in western Rakhine State.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya are confined to squalid displacement camps after waves of deadly unrest with Buddhists in 2012.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said he was “encouraged” by statements by the new government in recent weeks.

But, he warned, the government it had “inherited a situation where laws and policies are in place that are designed to deny fundamental rights to minorities, and where impunity for serious violations against such communities has encouraged further violence against them.”