Rohingya crisis may spark regional conflict: UN

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has warned that Myanmar’s persecution of the Rohingya people could spark regional conflict.

“It is sometimes said that today’s human rights violations will become tomorrow’s conflicts,” he said.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein came up with the remarks in a speech to a rights conference at Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday.

“If the Rohingya crisis were to spark a broader conflict based on religious identities, the ensuing disputes could be a cause for great alarm,” he said.

According to him, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing may have occurred in the campaign of violence against Rohingya that sparked an exodus of nearly 1 million people to neighboring Bangladesh.

“Myanmar faces a very serious crisis with a potentially severe impact on the security of the region,” Zaid said.

He said the spasms of violence that began in August and sparked the refugee crisis were the culmination of five decades of discrimination and violence against Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

According to Japan Times, the government of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar denies any atrocities have taken place and insists Rohingya are illegal immigrants.