By REUTERS
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -
The European Union clashed on Tuesday with the visiting leader of Myanmar, Aung
San Suu Kyi, by publicly supporting an international mission to look into
alleged human rights abuses by the country's security forces against Rohingya
Muslims.
The EU's top
diplomat Federica Mogherini, speaking at a news conference with Suu Kyi, said
an agreed resolution of the U.N. Human Rights Council would help clear up
uncertainty about allegations of killings, torture and rape against Rohingyas.
On the basis of that
resolution, the top United Nations human rights body will send an international
fact-finding mission to Myanmar despite Suu Kyi's reservations.
 |
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini
gives a news conference with Myanmar State
Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyiin Brussels,
Belgium May 2, 2017. REUTERS/Eric
Vidal
|
The U.N. Human
Rights Council adopted the resolution, which was brought by the European Union
and supported by countries including the United States, without a vote in
March. China and India distanced themselves from the U.N. resolution.
Asked about the
move, Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, said: "We are disassociating
ourselves from the resolution because we don't think the resolution is in
keeping with what is actually happening on the ground."
Suu Kyi, the de
facto leader of Myanmar's civilian government and also its foreign minister,
said she would only accept recommendations from a separate advisory commission
led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan. Any other input would "divide"
communities, she added, without giving further details.
The violent
persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and their efforts to
flee the Southeast Asian country, often falling victim to predatory
human-trafficking networks, has become an international concern, documented by
Reuters in Pulitzer Prize-winning reports.
A U.N. report issued
last month, based on interviews with220 Rohingya among 75,000 who have fled to
Bangladesh since October, said that Myanmar's security forces have committed
mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya in a campaign that "very
likely" amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.
Activists have
welcomed what they called a "landmark decision" by the 47-member U.N.
Human Rights Council, and have called on the Myanmar government to cooperate.
Suu Kyi assumed
power in 2016 following a landslide election win after Myanmar's former
military leaders initiated a political transition. The country had been an
international pariah for decades under the military junta.
(Reporting by Robin
Emmott; Editing by Gareth Jones)