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Angelina Jolie to visit Rohingya victims of sexual assault

Angelina Jolie, a superstar and filmmaker,and also a special envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),  announced plans to visit Rohingya victims of sexual violence in Bangladesh.

Jolie gave a speech during the UN Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial Conference in Vancouver, Canada, on Nov. 15. She decried the sexual violence in Bangladesh a tactic of war against civilians.

In this Sunday, Nov. 19, 2017, photo, Rohingya Muslim girls carry water pots in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. More than 620,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine for neighbouring Bangladesh since late August 2017, when the military launched what it called "clearance operations" in response to insurgent attacks. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

“According to the UN, almost every female Rohingya refugee in the camps in Bangladesh is either a survivor of sexual violence or a witness to multiple instances of sexual assault rape or gang rape. MSF said that half – half – of the patients it has treated for rape are under 18 years old, and one was just nine years old,” Jolie said.

“This is rape and assault designed to torture to terrorize and to force people to flee. It has nothing to do with sex. It has everything to do with abuse of power. It is criminal behavior.”

A Rohingya girl with her face covered in "thanaka", a comestic paste from ground bark, stands in her family's tent on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017, in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. Since late August, more than 620,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state into neighboring Bangladesh, seeking safety from what the military described as "clearance operations." The United Nations and others have said the military's actions appeared to be a campaign of "ethnic cleansing," using acts of violence and intimidation and burning down homes to force the Rohingya to leave their communities. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

Jolie informed the Bangladeshi delegation at the conference that she planed to visit the victims of sexual violence in refugee camps near the border with Myanmar. The foreign ministry of Bangladesh acknowledged the proposal but has not released any additional details about the trip.

As human right groups gave report about the barbarity, the Myanmar military denied all accusations of wrongdoing.