Suu Kyi denies ethnic cleansing charges

Yangon: Aung San Suu Kyi has denied security forces have carried out ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, speaking to the BBC after the UN rights council agreed to investigate allegations of rape, murder and torture against the Army.

Rights groups say while 75,000 managed to flee to Bangladesh, hundreds of the stateless group were killed in a months-long Army crackdown following deadly attacks on Myanmar border police posts in October last year.  

Ms Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader and a Nobel Laureate whose international star as a rights defender is waning over the treatment of the Rohingya, has neither spoken out in defence of the persecuted minority, nor has she condemned the crackdown, which UN investigators who spoke to escapees said likely amounted to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

“I don’t think there is ethnic cleansing going on… ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is happening… It is Muslims killing Muslims, as well, if they think they are collaborating with authorities,” Ms Kyi said in a rare interview televised Wednesday.

Most Rohingya are denied citizenship. Tens of thousands have languished in displacement camps since 2012.