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Myanmar President Htin Kyaw,
left, and State Counsellor Aung
San Suu Kyi sit together during the ceremony
marking the one-
year anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA)
in
capital Naypyidaw on October 15, 2016 AFP
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UN calls on Suu Kyi to visit crisis-hit Rakhine state
The UN has urged Myanmar's de
facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to visit northern Rakhine state, where the army
is accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner
has faced growing international criticism for not stopping the military’s
campaign, which has pushed more than 20,000 Rohingya over the border to
Bangladesh, bringing tales of mass rape, murder and arson.
The crackdown was launched in
response to deadly raids on police posts in October.
Malaysia has accused the army
of “genocide” charges Myanmar officials have vehemently denied.
Suu Kyi has described the
situation as “under control” and asked the international community to stop
stoking the “fires of resentment”.
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Fformer UN secretary-general
Kofi Annan, centre, and
commissioner Aye Lwin, right, of the multi-sector
advisory
commission meet with the Muslim community in Kyatyoepyin
village in
Maungdaw, located in Rakhine State near
the Bangladesh border AFP
|
In a statement released in New
York on Thursday, UN special adviser on Myanmar Vijay Nambiar appealed directly
to the peace icon to intervene.
“The adoption of a generally
defensive rather than proactive approach to providing security to the local
population, have caused frustration locally and disappointment
internationally,” he said.
“I also appeal to Daw Suu to
visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung and reassure the civilian population there that
they will be protected,” he added, referring to the locked down area in
Rakhine.
The bloodshed presents the
biggest challenge to Suu Kyi since her party won Myanmar’s first democratic
elections in a generation last year.
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| In this photograph taken on September 7, 2016,
minority Muslim Rohingya children and elders gather during a meeting with former UN secretary general Kofi Annan at the Thet Kal Pyin displacement camp in Sittwe after the Rakhine State has been effectively split on religious grounds between Buddhists and Muslims since bouts of communal violence tore through the state in 2012, killing scores and forcing tens of thousands to flee AFP |
It has galvanised Muslim
nations around the region, with protesters decrying the latest crackdown as the
culmination of year’s discrimination and abuse suffered by the stateless
Rohingya.
On Sunday Malaysia’s Prime
Minister Najib Razak taunted Suu Kyi, who the former junta kept under house
arrest for almost 20 years, before a crowd of some 5,000 protesters in Kuala
Lumpur.