Tag: Aung San Suu Kyi

Myanmar army’s admission of killings a ‘positive step’: Suu Kyi

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has welcomed an unprecedented army admission that security forces carried out extra-judicial killings of Rohingya Muslims as a “positive step”, state-backed media reported Saturday. After months of staunch denials of abuse, the army on Wednesday said a probe found four members of the security forces helped kill 10 Rohingya militant suspects at Inn Din village on September 2, leaving their bodies in a hastily […]

UPDATED: Bangladesh, Myanmar to start Rohingya return in two months

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to start repatriating Rohingya refugees in two months, Dhaka said Thursday, as global pressure mounts over the refugee crisis. More than 620,000 Rohingya have poured into Bangladesh since August, running from a Myanmar military crackdown that Washington said this week clearly constitutes “ethnic cleansing.” After weeks of tussling over the terms of repatriation, the two sides inked a deal in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw on Thursday following talks between Myanmar’s […]

Tillerson in Myanmar to press Suu Kyi and army on Rohingya

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (AFP) — Washington’s top diplomat arrived in Myanmar Wednesday to press civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country’s powerful army chief over violence-torn Rakhine state, where troops are accused of atrocities against Rohingya Muslims. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s one-day stop in the capital Naypyidaw comes as global outrage builds over an army crackdown that has driven more than 600,000 Rohingya out of the mainly Buddhist country since late August. While […]

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi meets Tillerson, UN chief on Rohingya crisis

  by Ayee Macaraig Agence France Presse Manila, Philippines (AFP) — Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced rising global pressure Tuesday to solve the crisis for her nation’s displaced Rohingya Muslim minority, meeting the UN chief and America’s top diplomat in the Philippines. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Nobel laureate that hundreds of thousands of displaced Muslims who had fled to Bangladesh should be allowed to return to their homes in Myanmar. […]

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi makes first visit to crisis-hit northern Rakhine

SITTWE, Myanmar (AFP) – Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived on her first visit to conflict-battered northern Rakhine State on Thursday, an official said, an unannounced trip to an area that has seen most of its Rohingya Muslim population forced out by an army campaign. Suu Kyi, a nobel laureate who leads Myanmar’s pro-democracy party, has been hammered by the international community for failing to use her moral power to speak up in defence of the Rohingya. […]

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi makes first visit to crisis-hit northern Rakhine

YANGON ,Myanmar (AFP) – Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived on her first visit to conflict-battered northern Rakhine State on Thursday, an official said, an unannounced trip to an area that has seen most of its Rohingya Muslim population forced out by an army campaign. Suu Kyi, a nobel laureate who leads Myanmar’s pro-democracy party, has been hammered by the international community for failing to use her moral power to speak up in defence […]

US targets Myanmar military over Rohingya violence

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The United States announced Monday it was withdrawing military assistance from Myanmar units and officers involved in violence against Rohingya Muslims that has triggered a massive exodus. “We express our gravest concern with recent events in Rakhine state and the violent, traumatic abuses Rohingya and other communities have endured,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in announcing the punitive measures. “It is imperative that any individuals or entities responsible for atrocities, including […]

Rohingya man refugee again 40 years after leaving Bangladesh

by Alexandre Marchand Agence France-Presse KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh (AFP) – Nearly four decades ago Fazol Ahmed returned to his native Myanmar with his family under a Rohingya repatriation scheme. Now he is back in the teeming camps of Bangladesh with his wife and children, a refugee once again. Ahmed is among the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have crossed into Bangladesh since an upsurge in violence in neighboring Myanmar in August that the UN has said amounts […]

Rohingya militants deny Myanmar army claims of Hindu massacre

MAUNGDAW, Myanmar  (AFP) – Rohingya militants on Wednesday denied the Myanmar army’s allegations that they had massacred scores of Hindu villagers, whose bodies soldiers displayed to the press after exhuming them from mass graves in northern Rakhine state. Major clashes between the army and the Muslim insurgents erupted last month, triggering a dire refugee crisis with nearly half a million Rohingya fleeing across the border to Bangladesh. An information war has followed, as Myanmar’s government pushes back against […]

Western powers warn Suu Kyi on Rohingya before speech

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Britain led world powers Monday in warning Myanmar of potential action if leader Aung San Suu Kyi does not move to end a campaign against the Rohingya minority. Hours before Suu Kyi delivers a national address Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called a meeting on the crisis on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Johnson, at the meeting attended by US Ambassador to […]

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi to address nation on Rakhine crisis next week: spokesman

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi will address the crisis engulfing Rakhine state next week, in her first speech since scores were killed in violence that has sent nearly 380,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh. In a press conference government spokesman Zaw Htay said Suu Kyi will “speak for national reconciliation and peace” in a televised address on September 19. He said the Nobel laureate, who has been pilloried by rights groups […]

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at the NAIA

Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 in Pasay City, Manila for her participation in the 30th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit on April 29, 2017. Myanmar joined the ASEAN community on July 23, 1997. The country played host to the ASEAN summit for the first time in 14 years last 2014.