Myanmar’s Suu Kyi makes first visit to crisis- hit northern Rakhine

Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi visited confl ict- battered northern Rakhine State for the first time Thursday, meeting Rohingya Muslims who have faced an army crackdown that has seen hundreds of thousands of the minority fl ee.

Suu Kyi, who leads Myanmar’s pro- democracy party, has been hammered for failing to use her moral power to speak up in defense of the Rohingya.

Some 600,000 of the state- less minority have fl ed to Bangladesh since late August carrying accounts of murder, rape and arson at the hands of Myanmar’s powerful army, after militant raids sparked a ferocious military retaliation.

The UN says that crackdown is likely tantamount to ethnic cleansing, while pressure has mounted on Myanmar to provide security for the Rohingya and allow people to return home.

Suu Kyi left via state capital Sittwe as evening fell on Thursday after a visit that also took in Maungdaw and Buthidaung in northern Rakhine.

It was her first trip in office to the region, which has seen some of the worst communal violence that has cut through the western state since 2012, severely damaging Myanmar’s global reputation.

“The Lady” – as she in known – did meet with the Rohingya community in Maungdaw town, according to local media, a first for a leader keen to convince observers inside the country and abroad that the crisis has abated and reconstruction of Rakhine can begin.

But it was not clear if Suu Kyi visited some of the hundreds of Rohingya villages torched by the army – allegedly aided by ethnic Rakhine Buddhist locals.

The Rohingya who remain in northern Rakhine are living in fear, surrounded by hostile neighbors, who refuse to let them farm or move freely.

The UN on Thursday again called for unfettered humanitarian access to a zone still under army lockdown.

On Thursday around 3,000 Rohingya arrived by land at the Bangladesh border, a sign hunger and fear is still driving people from their homes.