UN panel seeks report from Myanmar on rapes, deaths of Rohingya women

A Rohingya Muslim Mohamed Rafiq hands a drink of water and biscuits to his wife Noora Khatum who lies exhausted on the ground as they reach Teknaf, Bangladesh, Friday, Sept. 29, 2017. He trekked to Bangladesh as part of an exodus of a half million people from Myanmar, the largest refugee crisis to hit Asia in decades. But after climbing out of a boat on a creek on Friday, Rafiq could go no further. He collapsed onto a muddy spit of land cradling his wife in his lap, a limp figure so exhausted and so hungry she could no longer walk or even raise her wrists. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

A United Nations women’s rights panel called on Myanmar on Tuesday to provide “an exceptional report” within six months on rapes and sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls by its security forces in northern Rakhine state.

In a rare request, only its fourth ever since 1982, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women asked the Myanmar government to provide details on women and girls killed since the army crackdown began in late August, which drove more than 600,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

The watchdog panel said it had also “requested information on investigations, arrests, prosecutions, convictions and sentences or disciplinary measures imposed on perpetrators, including members of the armed forces, found guilty of such crimes”.