Suu Kyi vows reconciliation, peace amid Rohingya crisis
EPA pic SINGAPORE: Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, vowed yesterday to work for “peace and national reconciliation” amid mounting international condemnation of a bloody army crackdown on her country’s Muslim Rohingya minority.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner did not mention the violence in Rakhine State, but told a business forum here that multiethnic Myanmar needed to achieve stability to attract more investment.
Suu Kyi started a three-day visit to the republic here, the largest foreign investor in Myanmar after China, as international pressure mounted on her government to address the Rohingya crisis.
Myanmar had denied allegations of abuse, saying the army was hunting “terrorists” behind deadly raids on police border posts last month.
Thousands also fled into China this month after clashes broke out between the army and ethnic rebels in northern Shan state.
“We have many challenges. We’re a country made of many ethnic communities, and we have to work at achieving stability and rule of law, which you in Singapore take pride in,” the 71-year-old leader said.
“Businesses do not wish to invest in countries which are not stable.
“We do not wish to be unstable, but we’ve had a long history of disunity in our nation.
“So, national reconciliation and peace is important for us.”
Suu Kyi was scheduled to visit Indonesia after the visit here, but postponed the trip in the face of protests and a thwarted bomb plot against the Myanmar embassy there.
She had appointed fellow Nobel laureate, former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, to head a special commission to investigate how to mend bitter religious and ethnic divides in impoverished Rakhine.
Annan began a week-long trip to Myanmar on Tuesday. AFP