Suu Kyi defends Myanmar actions
NAYPYITAW, MYANMAR • With a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims sparking accusations of ethnic cleansing from the United Nations and others, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday said her country does not fear international scrutiny and invited diplomats to see some areas for themselves.
Though an estimated 421,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in less than a month as their villages have burned and hundreds have been killed, Suu Kyi said the “great majority” of Muslims within the conflict zone have stayed and that “more than 50 per cent of their villages were intact.”
The Nobel Peace laureate’s global image has been damaged by violence since Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar security forces on Aug. 25. Rohingya fled their villages in the military crackdown that followed, and many of their villages have been burned. The government has blamed the Rohingya themselves, but members of the persecuted minority have said soldiers and Buddhist mobs attacked them.
Suu Kyi’s first address to the nation since the violence erupted came days after she cancelled plans to attend the UN General Assembly, a decision seen as a response to international criticism.
Suu Kyi said anyone found to have broken the law would be punished. “Human rights violations and all other acts that impair stability and harmony and undermine the rule of law will be addressed in accordance with strict laws and justice,” she said.
The attacks on Rohingya villages in the past month appear to many to have been a systematic effort to drive them out. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has described it as ethnic cleansing.
Satellite imagery released by Human Rights Watch on Tuesday shows massive swaths of scorched landscape and the near-total destruction of 214 villages.
Suu Kyi sought to assure foreign diplomats gathered for her speech in Naypyitaw, the capital, that those who fled to Bangladesh would be allowed to return if they passed a “verification” process. She also said the government was working to restore normalcy in the area.
Russian and Chinese diplomats praised the speech. “The message is quite clear that Myanmar is ready to cooperate with the international community,” said the Russian ambassador to Myanmar, Dr. Nikolay Listopadov.
Rights groups were far more critical. Amnesty International regional director James Gomez accused Suu Kyi of “a mix of untruths and victim-blaming.”
The UN’s migration agency on Tuesday raised its estimate of the number of refugees in Bangladesh to 421,000, and UNICEF said more than a quarter-million are children. Spokesman Joel Millman of the International Organization for Migration says an estimated 20,000 people are flowing across Myanmar’s border into Bangladesh every day.