Nikkei Asian Review, NAYPYITAW :
Myanmar’s de facto leader and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has signaled determination to address the criticisms of her government’s handling of the refugee crisis engulfing the country’s western Rakhine State while stepping up economic reform.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Nikkei Asian Review, she said she would “find out more” about forces that triggered the exodus of more than 410,000 mainly stateless Muslim Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh, and reiterated her readiness to start the verification process for the return of some refugees at “any time.”
Despite her offer to facilitate visits by Myanmar’s diplomatic community to affected areas of northern Rakhine, she again ruled out allowing into the country the fact finding mission proposed earlier this year by the U.N. Human Rights Council. Suu Kyi, who is also foreign minister, also addressed investor concerns that the Rakhine crisis could affect Myanmar’s economic outlook, saying her government was stepping up economic reform-particularly in agriculture and infrastructure development. Such reforms, she said, were essential to
alleviate the kind of poverty that can breed radicalization.
A day after her televised speech to domestic and international audiences about the situation in western Rakhine-and ahead of an address by one of Myanmar’s two vice presidents to the United Nations General Assembly in New York-she also tackled international criticism over a brutal military campaign that has razed more than 200 villages in Rakhine and driven entire Rohingya communities into Bangladesh.
Myanmar’s de facto leader and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has signaled determination to address the criticisms of her government’s handling of the refugee crisis engulfing the country’s western Rakhine State while stepping up economic reform.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Nikkei Asian Review, she said she would “find out more” about forces that triggered the exodus of more than 410,000 mainly stateless Muslim Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh, and reiterated her readiness to start the verification process for the return of some refugees at “any time.”
Despite her offer to facilitate visits by Myanmar’s diplomatic community to affected areas of northern Rakhine, she again ruled out allowing into the country the fact finding mission proposed earlier this year by the U.N. Human Rights Council. Suu Kyi, who is also foreign minister, also addressed investor concerns that the Rakhine crisis could affect Myanmar’s economic outlook, saying her government was stepping up economic reform-particularly in agriculture and infrastructure development. Such reforms, she said, were essential to
alleviate the kind of poverty that can breed radicalization.
A day after her televised speech to domestic and international audiences about the situation in western Rakhine-and ahead of an address by one of Myanmar’s two vice presidents to the United Nations General Assembly in New York-she also tackled international criticism over a brutal military campaign that has razed more than 200 villages in Rakhine and driven entire Rohingya communities into Bangladesh.
