UK warns Myanmar leader on violence against Rohingya

LONDON: Britain has added to the international pressure on Myanmar state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi to act to stop the violence against Rohingyas, which has led to thousands leaving the country to seek refuge in neighbouring India and Bangladesh.

“Aung San Suu Kyi is rightly regarded as one of the most inspiring figures of our age but the treatment of the Rohingya is alas besmirching the reputation of Burma. She faces huge challenges in modernising her country,” foreign secretary Boris Johnson said.

Several human rights groups based in Britain and elsewhere have highlighted concerns over the treatment of the Rohingyas in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. The concerns were renewed during Oxford-educated Suu Kyi’s last visit to London in September 2016.

Johnson added: “I hope she can now use all her remarkable qualities to unite her country, to stop the violence and to end the prejudice that afflicts both Muslims and other communities in Rakhine”.

“It is vital that she receives the support of the Burmese military, and that her attempts at peacemaking are not frustrated. She and all in Burma will have our full support in this”.

Suu Kyi was hailed and feted during her visit to Britain in 2012 following her release from over two decades of house arrest.

The Foreign Office said Britain has provided nearly £8 million to address the humanitarian suffering of Rohingya refugees and the vulnerable Bangladeshi communities that host them.

It added that earlier this week, London raised the situation in Rakhine in the UN Security Council.