SUU KYI VISITS RAKHINE FOR FIRST TIME

She met Rohingyas in Maungdaw, one of the epicentres of violence

SITTWE

AUNG San Suu Kyi arrived on her first visit to conflict-battered northern Rakhine State yesterday, an official said, an unannounced trip to an area that has seen most of its Rohingya Muslim population forced out by an army campaign.

The nobel laureate who leads the country’s pro-democracy party, has been hammered by the international community for failing to speak up in defence of the Rohingya.

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

The United Nations said the crackdown was likely tantamount to ethnic cleansing, while pressure has mounted on Myanmar to provide security for the Rohingya and allow them to return home.

In addition to the state capital Sittwe, Suu Kyi was also visiting two of the epicentres of the violence, Maungdaw and Buthi- daung, during the one day trip, said a government spokesman

It was not clear whether Suu Kyi would visit Rohingya villages torched by the army.

But “The Lady”, as she i s known, did meet Rohingyas in Maungdaw, 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.

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

The UN called again for unfettered humanitarian access to a zone still under army lock-down.

On Thursday, 2,500 Rohingya arrived by land at the Bangladesh border, a sign hunger and fear is still driving people from their homes.

“The army didn’t attack us but made our life very difficult,” Mohammad Zafar, 35, from a village in Buthidaung said.

“We were not paid for any work and couldn’t go to markets. How long is it possible to live like that?” AFP