Aung San Suu Kyi Breaks Silence on Rohingya Crisis: 'Myanmar Does Not Fear Scrutiny'
"I’m aware of the fact that the world’s attention is focused on the situation in Rakhine state. As a responsible member of the community of nations Myanmar does not fear international scrutiny,” she said.
"We too are concerned. We want to find out what the real problems are. There have been allegations and counter-allegations. We have to listen to all of them. We have to make sure those allegations are based on solid evidence before we take action,” she said in the capital Naypyidaw.
Aung San Suu Kyi claimed the majority of Rohingya villages had not been affected by violence. She said the military – which has been accused of arson and indiscriminate killing – had been instructed to exercise restraint and avoid "collateral damage”.
Her comments lie in stark contrast to the testimony of refugees in neighbouring Bangladesh who describe a brutal campaign of army attacks on civilians, while satellite imagery shows scores of Rohingya villages devastated by burning.
Until now, Aung San Suu Kyi has not spoken publicly about the crisis since fresh violence broke out on 25 August, although in a phone call to the Turkish president she said "terrorists” were behind an "iceberg of misinformation” about the situation.
Striking a less aggressive but defiant tone in her 30-minute televised speech, she said she was "deeply concerned” about the suffering of people caught up in the conflict.
"We are concerned to hear that numbers of Muslims are fleeing across the border to Bangladesh,” she said. "We want to find out why this exodus is happening.”
Aung San Suu Kyi said her country stood ready "at any time” to take back refugees subject to a "verification” process. However, it was not immediately clear how many of the Rohingya who have fled Myanmar would qualify to return as most are not treated as citizens.
During the speech, she mentioned the Rohingya by name only once, in reference to the armed militant group the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. Many in majority-Buddhist Myanmar – including several influential Islamophobic Buddhist monks – say the Rohingya are illegal ‘Bengali’ immigrants from Bangladesh.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been widely criticised – including by fellow Nobel laureates – for failing to speak out against violence targeting the long-oppressed Rohingya.
Source: The Guardian
