UN: Myanmar’s reputation at stake over Rohingya crisis

The reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in Myanmar is at stake amid international concerns over how it is dealing with violence in the country’s divided northwest, a senior United Nations official warned on Tuesday. The conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine State has sent hundreds of Rohingya Muslims fleeing across the border to Bangladesh amid allegations of abuses by security forces. The crisis poses a serious challenge to Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, who swept to power last year on promises of national reconciliation. In a statement, Adama Dieng, the UN’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide, said the allegations “must be verified as a matter of urgency” and urged the government to allow access to the area. “If they are true, the lives of thousands of people are at risk. The reputation of Myanmar, its new Government and its military forces is also at stake in this matter,” he said. “Myanmar needs to demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law and to the human rights of all its populations. It cannot expect that such serious allegations are ignored or go unscrutinised,” he said. Soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar’s frontier with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on October 9 that killed nine police officers. Myanmar’s military and the government have rejected allegations by residents and rights groups that soldiers have raped Rohingya women, burnt houses and killed civilians during the military operation in Rakhine.

Suu Kyi vows reconciliation

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi vowed on Wednesday to work for peace and national reconciliation amid mounting international condemnation of a bloody army crackdown on her country’s Muslim Rohingya minority. The Nobel Peace Prize winner did not mention the violence in Rakhine state, but told a business forum in Singapore that multi-ethnic Myanmar needed to achieve stability to attract more investment. Criticism of Buddhist-dominated Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya has been intense in Muslim-majority neighbours Indonesia and Malaysia. Suu Kyi was scheduled to visit Indonesia after Singapore but postponed the trip in the face of public protests and a thwarted bomb plot against the Myanmar embassy. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will take part in a rare rally during the weekend to protest the crackdown on Rohingyas, an official from his office said Tuesday, as the UN rights agency reiterated its claim the stateless minority may be victims of crimes against humanity.