Myanmar army off the hook

– Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday she does not fear global scrutiny over the Rohingya crisis, pledging to hold rights violators to account but refusing to blame the military for violence that has driven about 421 000 of the Muslim minority out of her country.

In an address timed to pre-empt likely censure of Myanmar at the UN General Assembly in New York, she called for patience and understanding of the unfurling crisis in her “fragile democracy”.

She offered no solutions to stop what the UN calls army-led “ethnic cleansing” in Rakhine state.

Amnesty International said the Nobel peace laureate was “burying her head in the sand” over documented army abuses and claims of rape, murder and the systematic clearing of scores of villages.

Supporters and observers say the 72-year-old lacks the authority to rein in the military, which ran the country for 50 years and only recently ceded limited powers to her civilian government.

“She is trying to claw back some degree of credibility with the international community without saying too much that will get her in trouble with the [military] and Burmese people, who don’t like the Rohingya in the first place,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.

Communal violence has torn through Rakhine state since Rohingya militants staged attacks on police posts in August.

Suu Kyi said Myanmar stood ready to repatriate refugees in accordance with a verification process agreed with Bangladesh. In less than a month, just under half of Rakhine’s million Rohingya have poured into Bangladesh, where they languish in overcrowded refugee camps. – AFP