Naypyidaw/Yangon, Myanmar: Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi pledged Tuesday to hold rights violators to account over the Rohingya crisis but refused to blame Myanmar’s Army, as the UN chief demanded an end to the military campaign and a better deal for the Muslim minority.
In her first address to the country about the violence in northern Rakhine state that has seen some 421,000, she called for patience and understanding.
In the address, delivered entirely in English and timed to pre-empt censure at the UN General Assembly in New York, Ms Suu Kyi said that her government does not fear “international scrutiny” of its handling of the growing Rohingya crisis.
“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.
The Nobel peace laureate had earlier announced her decision not to attend the UN General Assembly.
Ms Suu Kyi, who has faced heavy criticism for her response to the crisis, said in her 30-minute speech to Myanmar’s Parliament that she felt “deeply” for the suffering of “all people” in the conflict, and that Myanmar was “committed to a sustainable solution… for all communities in this state”.
“We want to find out why this exodus is happening,” she said. “I think it is very little known that the great majority of Muslims in Rakhine State have not joined the exodus.”
Ms Suu Kyi avoided the use of the term Rohingya except to refer to the insurgent group. Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya, insisting they are immigrants from Bangladesh despite having lived here for generations.
Myanmar stood ready, she said, to repatriate refugees in accordance with a “verification” process agreed with Bangladesh in the early 1990s.
“Those who have been verified as refugees from this country will be accepted without any problems,” she added.
She insisted that the Army’s “clearance operations” finished on September 5.
Hours after her speech, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva called for full access to the region so it can investigate the situation “with its own eyes”.
Amnesty International said Ms Suu Kyi was “burying her head in the sand” over documented Army abuses and claims of rape, murder and the systematic clearing of scores of villages.
At the General Assembly, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres joined the international outcry. “The authorities in Myanmar must end the military operations and allow unhindered humanitarian access,” Mr Guterres told the assembly’s opening. “They must also address the grievances of the Rohingya, whose status has been left unresolved for far too long.”
Communal violence has torn through Rakhine state since Rohingya militants staged deadly attacks on police posts on August 25. An Army-led fightback has left scores dead and sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing into Bangladesh.
The UN has called it “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
Supporters and observers say the 72-year-old Suu Kyi lacks the authority to rein in the military and she has to avoid alienating her supporters by being seen to take the side of a Muslim minority that enjoys little sympathy in a country that has seen a surge of Buddhist nationalism.
That’s why, some diplomats said, she had not squarely addressed the problem of violence in her speech.
In monsoon-soaked shanties in Bangladesh, there was anguish among refugees over how they would meet any requirements to return.
“We don’t have any papers,” said 55-year-old Abdur Razzak.
“If the government is honestly speaking to resolve our crisis then we are ready to go back now,” he added. “Nobody wants to live in such squalid conditions as a refugee.”
But her domestic audience was happy.
Thousands of supporters cheered and let balloons float into the sky in Yangon as they watched Ms Suu Kyi’s speech on a big screen. Social media saw a blizzard of posts with the message: “We stand with Aung San Suu Kyi”.
