Myanmar military put on UN blacklist for sexual violence

A U.N. report puts Myanmar's armed forces on a U.N. blacklist of government and rebel groups "credibly suspected" of carrying out rapes and other acts of sexual violence in conflict for the first time.

An advance copy of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' report, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, says international medical staff in Bangladesh have documented that many of the nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled from Myanmar "bear the physical and psychological scars of brutal sexual assault."

The U.N. chief said the assaults were allegedly perpetrated by the Myanmar Armed Forces "at times acting in concert with local militias, in the course of military 'clearance' operations in October 2016 and August 2017."

Guterres said this was part of a strategy "to humiliate, terrorize and collectively punish the Rohingya community."