Millions of dollars of funding cuts from donors and U.N. cost-cutting could hamper evidence gathering and undermine efforts to seek justice for Rohingya who fled Myanmar, the head of a U.N. investigation said.

Nicholas Koumjian, head of The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, said he fears that the scale-back of its work will hurt efforts to bring perpetrators to justice.

¡°It will affect the ability to convict because we lose capacity,¡± he said in an interview in Geneva. ¡°That would send a message of impunity. It says to perpetrators: don¡¯t worry about being charged.¡±