Asean leaders urge Suu Kyi to resolve Rohingya crisis

SINGAPORE: Asean leaders have urged Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi to resolve the country’s issues involving the Rohingya. This was conveyed to her at the Asean leaders’ meeting on Tuesday night.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he, too, had raised the plight of the Rohingya with Suu Kyi.

“I did mention the situation in Rakhine State. We asked that efforts be made to correct the wrongdoings,” he said on the sidelines of the 33rd Asean Summit and Related Meetings here yesterday.

On Tuesday, Dr Mahathir had hit out at Suu Kyi, saying her response to the atrocities against the Rohingya was “indefensible”.

Dr Mahathir said he was “very disappointed” with Suu Kyi’s failure to defend the Rohingya.

He said Suu Kyi, as someone who had been detained before, should know about suffering and not inflict it on others.

He was referring to the 15 years of house arrest which Suu Kyi had endured under Myanmar’s military rule.

However, the treatment of the Rohingya and the response of Suu Kyi’s government had been criticised widely.

Human rights group Amnesty International recently stripped her of its highest honour over what it described as her “indifference” to the plight of the Rohingya.

United States Vice-President Mike Pence had, at the summit, also told Suu Kyi that the violence and persecution of Rohingyas was “inexcusable”.

Pence said the US was anxious to hear of progress in holding people accountable for the Rohingya crisis.