Ms Suu Kyi was addressing the nation for the first time on the crisis and in her speech denounced as a \u201cmix of untruths and victim-blaming\u201d by\u00a0Amnesty International.<\/p>\n
Over 400,000 Rohingya people, mostly Muslims, have fled the violence of Rakhine State in Myanmar for neighbouring Bangladesh. The United Nations has branded the treatment of the people as amounting to \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d but Suu Kyi did not criticize the actions of the army and said she did not fear \u201cinternational scrutiny\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m aware of the fact that the world\u2019s attention is focused on the situation in Rakhine state. As a responsible member of the community of nations\u00a0Myanmar does not fear international scrutiny,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been allegations and counter-allegations \u2026 We have to make sure those allegations are based on solid evidence before we take action,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The Nobel Peace Prize winner also claimed that there had been\u00a0\u201cno conflicts since 5 September and no clearance operations\u201d against the country\u2019s Muslim minority, though Human Rights\u2019 organizations and the refugees have disputed this, insisting the violence has continued to rage.<\/p>\n
She did not use the term Rohingya – calling the group Bengali Muslims instead.<\/p>\n
Delivering her address Suu Kyi said she and her government “condemn all human rights violations and unlawful violence”, but did not condemn the actions of the military, instead stating that it had been instructed to exercise restraint and avoid \u201ccollateral damage\u201d in its pursuit of insurgents.<\/p>\n
In response to the speech, Amnesty International said Aung San Suu Kyi\u2019s speech showed the leader and her government were \u201cburying their heads in the sand over the horrors unfolding in Rakhine state\u201d.<\/p>\n
James Gomez, Amnesty International\u2019s regional director for south-east Asia, said \u201cAung San Suu Kyi\u2019s claims that her government does not fear international scrutiny ring hollow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Myanmar has nothing to hide, it should allow UN investigators into the country, including Rakhine state. The government must also urgently allow humanitarian actors full and unfettered access to all areas and people in need in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is trying to claw back some degree of credibility with the international community, without saying too much that will get her in trouble with the [military] and Burmese people who don\u2019t like the Rohingya in the first place,\u201d said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, has said her government does not fear “international scrutiny” over its handling of the ongoing Rohingya crisis. Ms Suu Kyi was addressing the nation for the first time on the crisis and in her speech denounced as a \u201cmix of untruths and victim-blaming\u201d by\u00a0Amnesty International. Over 400,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":24150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}