Rohingya crisis: Suu Kyi visits Rakhine in one-day unannounced trip
Naypyidaw, Nov 2 (IBNS): Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday visited the violence hit Rakhine state in a one-day unannounced trip, reports said.
She will visit regional capital Sittwe and other towns affected by the Rohingya crisis.
This is Suu Kyi's first visit since violence broke out in August.
At least 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh ever since violence broke out in Myanmar, which has sustained criticism from human rights watch dogs for alleged ethnic cleansing.
Among the displaced Rohingya, Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar has been a hotspot, as the place has sheltered as many as 400,000 refugees.
Bangladesh, which has received overwhelming refugees in the past three months, is now mulling voluntary sterilization.
Suu Kyi, who too has been criticised for keeping tight lipped about the violence, finally broke her silence in September and slammed the 'iceberg of misinformation' which has been spread on the internet.
Prior to it, in his opinion piece for The Guardian, British author and political commentator George Monbiot had penned: "Few of us expect much from political leaders: to do otherwise is to invite despair. But to Aung San Suu Kyi we entrusted our hopes. To mention her name was to invoke patience and resilience in the face of suffering, courage and determination in the unyielding struggle for freedom. She was an inspiration to us all."
"By any standards, the treatment of the Rohingya people, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, is repugnant. By the standards Aung San Suu Kyi came to symbolise, it is grotesque. They have been described by the UN as “the world’s most persecuted minority”, a status that has not changed since she took office," he added.
Criticising Suu Kyi for her lackadaisical attitude and questioning her ability to handle the situation, the columnist said: "So far Aung San Suu Kyi has been insulated by the apologetics of those who refuse to believe she could so radically abandon the principles to which she once appealed. A list of excuses is proffered: that she didn’t want to jeopardise her prospects of election; that she doesn’t want to offer the armed forces a pretext to tighten their grip on power; that she has to keep China happy."
Image: Wallpaper
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