U.N. Report Finds ‘Horrendous’ Rapes, Murders of Rohingya in Myanmar

In a 440-page report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council Tuesday, U.N. investigators detailed a “horrendous” pattern of the alleged rape, torture, and murder of the Rohingya and other minorities perpetrated by Myanmar’s army, according to a report from The Guardian. Investigators called their findings—which included stories of women tied by their hair to trees and raped, children forced back into burning houses, and landmines placed on escape routes to kill fleeing villagers—“the gravest crimes under international law.” The chair of the investigation decried the claims, stating that “I have never been confronted by crimes as horrendous and on such a scale as these.” The report, which came from 15 months of research and interviews with 875 refugees who fled Myanmar, estimates that 10,000 Rohingya were killed in the two months after the attacks began last August, and that almost 400 villages were “literally wiped off the map.” The report called for the army to surrender to civilian oversight, and, if necessary, to be rebuilt entirely. It also called for senior leaders to be tried for genocide and other human-rights abuses. Myanmar’s leadership has denied the allegations that surfaced in a summary of the report released in August. They will have a chance Tuesday to respond to the full allegations in front of the Human Rights Council.