COX´S BAZAR, Bangladesh: UN human rights envoy Yanghee Lee was on Tuesday visiting Rohingya refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, where thousands have taken shelter after fleeing a military *****down in Myanmar.
Almost 73,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since the military unleashed a four-month campaign of violence against the stateless Muslim mi**rity that the United Nations says may amount to crimes against humanity.
The refugees, most of whom are **w living in squalid camps in the Cox´s Bazar district which borders Myanmar´s Rakhine state, have brought harrowing accounts of systematic rape, killings and torture at the hands of the military.
Lee, the UN´s Special Rapporteur on the issue, was in the coastal district on Tuesday after holding talks with government ministers in Dhaka about the crisis. There was ** immediate comment from the UN, but the Bangladesh foreign ministry said Dhaka had expressed concern over the presence of the Rohingya in the country.
"She (Lee) is **w visiting the camps to talk to the refugees," Bangladesh foreign ministry spokeswoman Khaleda Begum told AFP. Myanmar says its army has **w halted its operations in Rakhine, which were aimed at finding militants who attacked police border posts.