Myanmar’s Suu Kyi opts to skip UN meeting

— With Myanmar drawing condemnation for violence that has driven at least 370,000 Rohingya to flee the country, the government said Wednesday its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will skip this month’s UN General Assembly meetings.

Suu Kyi will miss the assembly’s ministerial session, which opens Sept. 19 and runs through Sept. 25, in order to address domestic security issues, according to presidential office spokesperson Zaw Htay.

The UN Security Council, meanwhile, was scheduled to hold closed-door consultations later Wednesday on the Myanmar crisis.

Suu Kyi’s appearance at last year’s General Assembly was a landmark: her first since her party won elections in 2015 and replaced a military-dominated government. Even then, however, she faced criticism over Myanmar’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims, whose name she did not utter. Members of the ethnic group are commonly referred to as “Bengalis” by many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar who insist they migrated illegally from Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi is not Myanmar’s president — her official titles are state counsellor and foreign minister — but she effectively serves as leader of the Southeast Asian nation.

Zaw Htay said that second VicePresident Henry Van Tio would attend the UN meeting.

Instead, Zaw Htay said, Suu Kyi will give a speech in Myanmar next week that will cover the same topics that she would have addressed at the UN.