UN council heads to Bangladesh and Myanmar to see Rohingya

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council is heading to Asia for a firsthand look at the plight of some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled a military crackdown in Myanmar and the several hundred thousand who remain in the country's northern Rakhine State.

Britaish Ambassador Karen Pierce says the most important thing is that the body charged with maintaining international peace and security "can see for itself the situation on the ground in a very desperate case of alleged human rights violations and abuses and crimes against humanity."

Buddhist-majority Myanmar insists the Rohingya are Bengali migrants from Bangladesh living illegally in the country. It has denied them citizenship, leaving them stateless.

The Security Council is scheduled to visit Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazaar on Saturday and Rakhine on Tuesday.