Suu Kyi says she is not soft on military
YANGON: Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has rejected a suggestion she is soft on the military, which the United Nations has accused of ethnic cleansing, sayingherrelationshipwiththegenerals was normal and her objective was national reconciliation.
Suu Kyi on Tuesday condemnedrightsabusesinRakhine State, where conflict that began last month has forced 421,000 RohingyaMuslimstoseekrefuge inBangladesh,andsaidviolators would be punished.
But, in her first address to the Buddhist-majority nation onthe crisis, she did not address UN accusations of ethnic cleansing by the security forces, drawing cool international responses.
“We’ve never changed our stand,” she said in an interview withRadioFreeAsia,whenasked if she had softened her stance on the military.
In an interview to ANI, Suu Kyi said she did not use the term Rohingya to refer to the Muslim minority facing what the United Nations called an ethnic cleansing, as she did not want to use “emotive” terms for an already affected population.