Cii Radio|Ayesha Ismail|19 September 2017| 28 Dhul Hijjah 1438
Amnesty International has accused Aung San Suu Kyi and her government of “burying their heads in the sand” and telling “untruths” over what it described as ethnic cleansing of minority Rohingya Muslims in Burma.
The charity has denounced the Nobel Prize Laureate over her response to the crisis which has seen at least 400,000 members of the Muslim ethnic minority flee to Bangladesh to escape a brutal crackdown by the military.
Reports have emerged of mass rape and murder by the armed forces and mobs of Buddhist ethnic majority villagers in the western Rakhine state in what the United Nations has called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
In a live address on Burmese television, Ms Suu Kyi defended her country from international criticism, saying it does not fear global “scruntiny”. She said “more than half” of Rohingya villages were not affected by the violence and invited diplomats and foreign observers to visit them to see “why they are not at each other’s throats in these particular areas”.
Although Ms Suu Kyi is nominally the de facto ruler of Burma since 2016, she is ineligible for the presidency and her regime is still at the mercy of the military junta which has controlled the country since the 1962 coup. The military still continues to hold the majority of seats in the Burmese parliament and remain in control of the country’s security.
James Gomez, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said: “Aung San Suu Kyi today demonstrated that she and her government are still burying their heads in the sand over the horrors unfolding in Rakhine State. At times, her speech amounted to little more than a mix of untruths and victim blaming.
“There is overwhelming evidence that security forces are engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. While it was positive to hear Aung San Suu Kyi condemn human rights violations in Rakhine state, she is still silent about the role of the security forces in this.
Source – Independent
