Myanmar has said it will not allow members of the United Nations enter the country to look into allegations of human rights violations by security forces against Rohingya Muslims, AP reported on Friday.

In February, the UN Human Rights Council had prepared a report alleging that Myanmar’s soldiers and police had killed and raped civilians during counter-insurgency operations in Rohingya areas.

“If they are going to send someone with regard to the fact-finding mission, then there is no reason for us to let them come,” Kyaw Zeya, permanent secretary to the foreign ministry was quoted as saying by Reuters. He further said that visas to enter Myanmar will not be issued to the mission’s appointees or staff.

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In March, the UN Council had appointed three legal experts and human rights advocates to lead the operation. On May 3, Myanmar’s de-facto leader and Nobel Peace Prize-winning laureate Aung San Suu Kyi had rejected the move, saying the resolution was not in keeping “with what is actually happening on the ground”.

Suu Kyi has been criticised for failing to stand up for more than 1 million stateless Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine. “But those recommendations, which will divide further the two communities in Rakhine, we will not accept because they will not help to resolve the problems that are arising all the time,” she had said.

Earlier, she had earlier also denied allegations of “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya Muslim minority. “I think ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is happening.”

Myanmar treats Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and does not acknowledge their rights as an official ethnic group. The community has been subjected to violence by the Buddhist majority and the Army in Myanmar. Hundreds have died starving on boats trying to flee the country, while many have settled in and around Jammu and Kashmir.