FRIENDS OF SUU KYI TURN AGAINST HER AS HER SILENCE ON ROHINGYA DEAFENS
▶ Supporters such as former British foreign secretary William Hague condemn oppression of Myanmar’s Muslims
A growing list of Aung San Suu Kyi’s prominent supporters has turned on the Nobel laureate over the repression of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims.
William Hague, the former British foreign secretary, became the latest of Ms Suu Kyi’s friends to condemn her leadership of the country amid a crisis that threatens almost a million people.
Mr Hague is among many who worked for her freedom during the decades of imprisonment and house arrest to express his dismay at her role in the Rohingya’s suffering.
He was among the first foreign leaders to visit Ms Suu Kyi when she was freed in 2012, arriving on her doorstep before Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state at the time.
The widow of a British academic, Ms Suu Kyi is extremely close to the British embassy in Myanmar and is regarded as a personal friend by many ambassadors and politicians in London.
“It is possible to make the argument that we should cut her some slack,” Mr Hague wrote in a weekly newspaper column. “But I join all those who have come to the sad conclusion that, no, it isn’t.
“The action against the Rohingya in the past fortnight appears to be one of unlimited violence against the civilian population. The accounts emerging from the area in question, Rakhine state, involve the torching of villages and appalling atrocities of rape and murder.”
Campaigners have condemned the British government’s response to the atrocities in Myanmar as pathetic and suggested it is in thrall to Ms Suu Kyi.
More than 150 British parliamentarians signed a letter urging Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, to apply greater pressure on her and Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar military.
Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma UK Campaign that championed Ms Suu Kyi’s freedom, said he had pleaded with her personally but was rebuffed.
“Aung San Suu Kyi’s behaviour is inexcusable,” Mr Farmaner said.
“I campaigned for more than a decade for her release from house arrest, I pressured the government, I went around the world calling for her release, and I am so disappointed with how she has behaved.
“I’ve spoken to her about this myself. She did not seem sympathetic. I said to her, ‘Please go and see for yourself what’s going on in northern Rakhine state to the Rohingya’, but she refused.”
Mr Hague’s intervention follows that of prominent Nobel prize winners who have implored her to stand up to the Myanmar military. Muhammad Yunis, the founder of the microfinance bank Grameen, wrote in The National of the suffering a few miles from his hometown in Bangladesh.
“Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto head of government, should undertake a visit to the refugee camps in Bangladesh to address the terrified people living there,” he wrote.
“She should tell them that Myanmar is as much their home as it is hers. This single act of leadership would wash away all the suspicions and begin the process of healing.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has also made a direct plea to his fellow laureate. The Dalai Lama said the suffering of the Rohingya could be seen on their faces after Ms Suu Kyi said the reports from the region were fake news.
“May I take the liberty of writing to you once again to tell you how dismayed I am by the distressing circumstances in which the situation seems to have deteriorated further,” the Dalai Lama wrote.
“I appeal to you and your leaders to reach out to all sections of society to try to restore friendly relations throughout
I said to her, ‘Please go and see for yourself what’s going on in northern Rakhine to the Rohingya,’ but she refused MARK FARMANER Director of Burma UK Campaign
the population in a spirit of peace and reconciliation.”
Human rights activists are appalled that their former heroine is now in league with the military responsible for the attacks.
“Aung San Suu Kyi hits a new low with this potentially deadly inflammatory propaganda. Leadership failure,” tweeted Phelim Kine, deputy director of the Asia region for Human Rights Watch.
Mr Hague called for Ms Suu Kyi to take four steps. First, to demand the military stop the violence. Second, to commission an investigation of crimes on all sides. Third, to explain to Myanmar’s citizens that the violence will not resolve grievances. And fourth, to take the risk of taking on the military and exert full control over the Myanmar state.
He ended with an exhortation to his former friend. “Come on, Aung San Suu Kyi. Be the great leader we always knew.”