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Aung San Suu Kyi to skip UNGA on Rohingyas
September 13, 2017
Myanmar State Counsellor and de facto leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will
not attend next week's United Nations General Assembly debate as
criticism of her handling of the Rohingya crisis grows.
According
to reports, about 370,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's northern
Rakhine state for Bangladesh, Nepal and India since the outbreak of
violence last month.
Entire villages have been burnt down,
leading critics and the United Nations into accusing the NLD Government
of ethnic cleansing.
Myanmar's military, however, says it is fighting Rohingya militants and has denied reports that it is targeting civilians.
The
Rohingya, a mostly Muslim minority in Buddhist-majority Rakhine, have
long experienced persecution in Myanmar, which says they are illegal
immigrants. They have lived in Myanmar for generations but are denied
citizenship.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on Wednesday to discuss the crisis.
Nobel
Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi has been criticised by former supporters in
the West for failing to do enough to prevent the violence.
She
had lived under house arrest for 15 years for her pro-democracy
activism, is widely seen as the head of government in Myanmar.
Fellow
Nobel laureates, including the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and
Malala Yousafzai, have called on Ms Suu Kyi to stop the violence.
Suu
Kyi was expected to participate in discussions at the General Assembly
session in New York, which runs from September 19 to 25.
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