‘Not advisable at this time’

Broad Myanmar sanctions won’t solve Rohingya crisis, says US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Naypyidaw: Washington’s top diplomat said he would not yet push for sanctions against Myanmar over the Rohingya refugee crisis, but he called for an independent investigation into “credible” reports that soldiers committed atrocities against the Muslim minority.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was speaking yesterday after a oneday stop in Naypyidaw, as global outrage builds over impunity for a military accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled the mainly Buddhist country since the military launched a counter-insurgency operation in north- ern Rakhine state in late August.

Speaking after meetings with the army chief and Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Tillerson said that broad economic sanctions are “not something that I’d think would be advisable at this time”.

“We want to see Myanmar succeed,” he told reporters.

“You can’t just impose sanctions and therefore say the crisis is over.”

But he said Washington was “deeply concerned by credible reports of widespread atrocities committed by Myanmar’s security forces and vigilantes” and urged Myanmar to accept an independent investigation into those allegations, after which individual sanctions could be appropriate.

“The scenes of what occurred out there are just horrific,” he added.

Both the army and Suu Kyi’s administration have dismissed reports of atrocities and refused to grant entry to UN investigators charged with probing allegations of ethnic cleansing.

But Washington has been careful to focus blame on the military rather than Suu Kyi, whose fledgling civilian administration is in a delicate power-sharing arrangement with the army.

Though she lacks any say in security policy, the Nobel laureate has become a punching bag for rights groups disappointed by her failure to publicly criticise the military or defend Rohingya against rising Islamophobia, partly because she was so outspoken during the junta years.

Suu Kyi, who rarely holds press conferences, addressed those criticisms yesterday.

She hit back at global criticism that she has been silent over the refugee crisis, saying she has instead focused on speech that avoids inflaming sectarian tensions.

“I have not been silent ... what people mean is what I say is not interesting enough,” she told reporters.

“What I say is not meant to be exciting, it’s meant to be accurate ... not set people against each other.” — AFP

We want to see Myanmar succeed. You can’t just impose sanctions and therefore say the crisis is over.

Rex Tillerson