Myanmar leader defends handling of crimes against Rohingya Muslims

Myanmar’s leader has finally broken her silence only to defend how her government is dealing with the massive human rights violations committed against Rakhine-based Rohingya Muslims, which the UN says amount to ethnic cleansing.

According to Press TV, Aung San Suu Kyi fell short of singling out the military in the globally-condemned violence, which has triggered a massive exodus of Muslim refugees to Bangladesh.

On Tuesday, Suu Kyi addressed the nation for the first time since August 25, when a fresh upsurge in violence subjected the Rohingya in Muslim villages across the Western State of Rakhine to mass killings, torture, rape and arson attacks and forced more than 417,000 to flee their homeland.

Suu Kyi has faced harsh international criticism amid several reports about systematic attacks by the Myanmar military and majority Buddhists against the persecuted Muslim community.

In her address, however, Suu Kyi claimed that most Muslim villages had not been affected by the violence, wondering about the reasons why the exodus to Bangladesh still continued, despite the fact that there had been no “clearance operations” since September 5.

She said her government intended to find out why people in almost 50 percent of Muslim villages that remained unaffected had preferred to stay, acknowledging in the process that half of Rohingya villages had been destroyed and burned to the ground in the ongoing bout of violence.

There have been “allegations and counter-allegations” that need to be investigated before taking any action, Suu Kyi said.

The leader of the Asian country’s civilian government said Myanmar does not fear international scrutiny and is committed to finding a sustainable solution to the situation in Rakhine.

Suu Kyi’s silence has provoked immense international criticism in recent weeks, especially after dismissing reports of ethnic violence in Rakhine as “a huge iceberg of misinformation” meant to “promote the interests of the terrorists.”

In her speech, Suu Kyi even refused to use the word Rohingya to refer to members of the minority group, naming them only once while making mention of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a group that purportedly fights to defend the rights of the minority group. She claimed that peaceful conditions were disturbed only after armed groups had staged terrorist attacks on dozens of police outposts in August.

She claimed that Myanmar was ready to verify the national status of the Rohingya refugees who have fled violence in recent weeks. “We are prepared to start the verification process at any time," she suggested.

But the brutality against the Rohingyas has its roots in the very fact that Myanmar does not recognize them as citizens and has denied citizenship rights to 1.1 million members of the community for several decades, alleging they are Bengalis who have in the past migrated to the country from Bangladesh. The Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship in 1982 despite having lived in the country for generations.

Due to their status, the Rohingya are not free to travel and practice their religion, having little access to medical care, food or education.

ME