Dhaka: The number of new arrivals from Myanmar in Bangladesh since October 9 last has reached 73,000 Rohingya, says UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

“Myanmar denied access to my office, so our report stemmed from a mission by my office to Bangladesh - where some 73,000 Rohingya refugees have fled,” he said.

Hussein said this while highlighting the current major human rights issues in more than 40 countries around the world in an address at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday.

“It appears that what has been termed by the security forces a ‘counter-insurgency operation’ is in reality aimed at expelling the Rohingya population from Myanmar altogether,” he said.

“I therefore urge the Council, at minimum, to establish a Commission of Inquiry into the violence against the Rohingya, particularly during security operations since 9 October 2016,” Hussein said reiterating their standing request to open an OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) office in Myanmar.

Last month, he said, he issued a very disturbing report on the alarming scale and severity of operations by the Myanmar security forces against Rohingya men, women and children in Rakhine State.

These operations began in October, after a reported attack by armed assailants on three border guard facilities, according to a message UNB received from Geneva.

It found material evidence and corroborated eyewitness accounts of mass killings, including babies, children and elderly people unable to flee, and the burning of entire villages; shooting; massive detention; systematic rape and sexual violence; and deliberate destruction of food and sources of food, the HR boss said.

Hussein said the severity of the reported violations, against a backdrop of severe and longstanding persecution, appears to me to amount to possible commission of crimes against humanity, which warrants the attention of the International Criminal Court.