The UN Human Rights Council must set up a commission of inquiry into Burma’s human rights record, as it has done for North Korea and Eritrea, and not spare its leader because of her iconic status, a former US human rights envoy said on Monday.

The top United Nations human rights official said State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi promised on Friday to investigate UN allegations of atrocities against Rohingya Muslims.

Burma’s security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims, and burned their villages since October in a campaign that “very likely” amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing, the UN human rights office says.

UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee gave a sombre review of Burma's human rights progress after her second tour of the country under the NLD government.

More than 65,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled conflict-torn northern Arakan State in recent months, seeking shelter across the border in Bangladesh, according to startling figures released by the United Nations this week.

Rights advocates have criticised the State Counsellor’s Office after it put out a press release and Facebook post last week that appeared aimed at discrediting the accounts of two women in northern Arakan State who alleged that they had been raped.