UN urged to punish Myanmar army over Rohingya 'atrocities'

Yangon : Pressure tightened on Myanmar Monday as a rights group urged world leaders to impose sanctions on the country's military, which is accused of driving out more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims in an orchestrated "ethnic cleansing" campaign.

The call from Human Rights Watch came as the UN General Assembly prepared to convene in New York, with the ongoing crisis in Myanmar billed as one of most pressing topics.

The mass exodus of Rohingya refugees to neighbouring Bangladesh has billowed into an humanitarian emergency as aid groups struggle to provide relief to a daily stream of new arrivals, more than half of whom are children.

There are acute shortages of nearly all forms of aid, with many Rohingya huddling under tarps as their only protection from monsoon rains. 

Myanmar's government hinted Sunday that would not take back all who fled across the border, accusing those refugees of having links to militants whose raids on police posts in August set off the army backlash.

Any moves to block the refugees' return will likely inflame Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina, who will press the UN General Assembly for more global pressure on Myanmar to repatriate all of the Rohingya massing in shantytowns along her border.

Human Rights Watch also called for the "safe and voluntary return" of the displaced as it urged governments around the globe to punish Myanmar's army with sanctions for the "ongoing atrocities" against the Rohingya.