Angelina Jolie condemns sexual violence against Rohingya

DHAKA – 16 November 2017: Filmstar Angelina Jolie has condemned sexual violence inflicted on Rohingya women in Myanmar's Rakhine State, where a military counter-insurgency operation has sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees across the border to Bangladesh.

More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar since late August, driven out by the military's actions that a top United Nations official has described as a classic case of "ethnic cleansing".

Jolie, a special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a Bangladesh delegation in the Canadian city of Vancouver that she planned to visit the Rohingya victims of sexual violence.

"Later she mentioned accordingly in her keynote speech about the sexual violence faced by almost each female Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh and condemned the armed conflict in Myanmar," Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

It gave no details of Jolie's proposed trip.

Accusations of organised mass rape and other crimes against humanity were levelled at the Myanmar military on Sunday by another senior U.N. official, who had toured camps in Bangladesh where Rohingya refugees have taken shelter.

Pramila Patten, the special representative of the U.N. secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, said she would raise accusations against the Myanmar military with the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

In parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh would overcome obstacles to resolve the Rohingya crisis, with the help of the international community.

"I strongly believe we will find a peaceful solution to the unprecedented crisis with the help of the international community, despite various obstacles," she said.