Myanmar's Suu Kyi to skip U.N. General Assembly amid Rohingya crisis

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi to skip U.N. General Assembly amid Rohingya crisis

By Wa Lone

 

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi talks during a news conference with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Naypyitaw, Myanmar September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

 

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, facing outrage over ethnic violence that has forced about 370,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh, will not attend the upcoming U.N. General Assembly session in New York, a party spokesman said on Wednesday.

 

The crisis over the security forces' fierce response to a series of Rohingya militant attacks is the biggest problem Suu Kyi has faced since becoming Myanmar's leader last year. Critics have called for Suu Kyi to be stripped of her Nobel peace prize for failing to do more to halt the strife.

 

In her first address to the U.N. General Assembly as national leader in September last year, Suu Kyi defended her government’s efforts to resolve the crisis over treatment of the Muslim minority.

 

This year, her party spokesman said she would not be attending, although he said he was unsure why.

 

"She's never afraid of facing criticism or confronting problems. Perhaps she's got more pressing matters here to deal with," Aung Shin, the spokesman, told Reuters.

 

International pressure has been growing on Myanmar to end the violence in the western state of Rakhine that began on Aug. 25 when Rohingya militants attacked about 30 police posts and an army camp.

 

The attacks triggered a sweeping military counter-offensive that refugees say is aimed at pushing Rohingya out of Myanmar.

 

Reports from refugees and rights groups paint a picture of widespread attacks on Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine by the security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, who have put numerous Muslim villages to the torch.

 

But Myanmar authorities have denied that the security forces, or Buddhist civilians, have been setting the fires, instead blaming the insurgents. Nearly 30,000 Buddhist villagers have also been displaced, they say.

 

The Trump administration has called for protection of civilians, and Bangladesh says all of the refugees will have to go home and it has called for safe zones to be created in Myanmar to enable them to do so.

 

But China, which competes with the United States for influence in the Southeast Asian nation, said on Tuesday it backed Myanmar's efforts to safeguard "development and stability".

 

The military, which ruled with an iron fist for almost 50 years until it began a transition to democracy in 2011, retains important political powers and is in full control of security. Suu Kyi has no say over those matters.

 

The U.N. Security Council is to meet on Wednesday behind closed doors for the second time since the latest crisis erupted. British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said he hoped there would be a public statement agreed by the council.

 

However, rights groups denounced the 15-member council for not holding a public meeting. Diplomats have said China and Russia would likely object to such a move and protect Myanmar if there was any push for council action to try and end the crisis.

 

(Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-09-13

[trainman34014]

The truth will out and the truth is that so called 'democracy' in Burma is all smoke and mirrors.  The Army are completely in charge and Suu Kyi has no power other than that she is allowed by the Military.

[canopus1969]

She's never afraid of facing criticism or confronting problems. Perhaps she's got more pressing matters here to deal with

 

Yes like doing the laundry and sorting out this evenings meal - waste of space 

[retarius]

Methinks the Lady is afraid. Nothing like going down in everybody's estimation to induce fear of appearance.

[edwinchester]

"This year, her party spokesman said she would not be attending, although he said he was unsure why."

 

She's not stupid and probably realises that it is hard to defend the indefensible.

[Lupatria]

That's the price she pays for being released from comfortable house arrest and it looks like she's happy with the arrangement. Miss Nobel laureate betrayed her people like nobody else.

[phantomfiddler]

22 minutes ago, Lupatria said:

That's the price she pays for being released from comfortable house arrest and it looks like she's happy with the arrangement. Miss Nobel laureate betrayed her people like nobody else.

I don,t think she betrayed her people, anything but ! She is doing her best to protect them from harm. She possibly saw from news around the world that almost all of the world,s violence is being caused by men under sideways linkage indicating mutant followers. She doesn,t want them living anywhere near her and neither, probably, do you.

[tryasimight]

Go Ma.....hunt these people from your country...do what the West is afraid to do. Follow in your fathers footsteps. Be brave.