PM suspends Myanmar military links to protest at violence

BRITAIN is to suspend military links with Myanmar in protest at the outbreak of violence against the country’s Muslim minority, Theresa May announced yesterday.

On the first day of the Prime Minister’s visit to the UN General Assembly in New York, she joined international calls for an end to bloody attacks on the Rohingya people.

Her intervention follows mounting pressure on leader Aung San Suu Kyi to try to resolve the crisis with critics blaming the military for the bloodshed in the country, formerly known as Burma.

Downing Street yesterday announced that Ministry of Defence education programmes being run with the military forces of Myanmar were being suspended.

Mrs May said: “I think it is important that Aung San Suu Kyi and her government make clear to the military that this action has to stop. We also want to see humanitarian support being able to get through to provide support to the Rohingya people.”

She added: “Boris Johnson has been here at the United Nations doing important work yesterday in a meeting on Burma. We are very concerned about what’s happening to the Rohingya people in Burma. The military action against them must stop. We’ve seen too many vulnerable people having to flee for their lives.”

The military has been accused of carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize winner who won international admiration for her long campaign for democracy, has faced scathing criticism. She has stayed away from the UN meeting of world leaders.