How Aung San Suu Kyi sees the Rohingya crisis

Myanmar leader aung san suu kyi has overseen what's stated to be the arena's quickest growing refugee crisis, as masses of lots of rohingya muslims flee to neighbouring bangladesh.

Risking loss of life with the aid of sea or on foot, greater than half one million have fled persecution in northern rakhine state considering that august 2017. The authorities sees the rohingya as unlawful immigrants from bangladesh and denies them citizenship

A lot of the ones who've fled describe troops and rakhine buddhist mobs burning their villages and attacking civilians. However myanmar's navy says it's far combating rohingya militants, and denies ever concentrated on civilians.

Ms suu kyi, a nobel peace prize winner who lived beneath house arrest for decades for her pro-democracy activism, is going through allegations that she has failed to talk out over violence in opposition to the rohingyas.

So what has she said?

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Human rights heroine
In 2012, extra than 20 years after being offered the nobel peace prize, ms suu kyi gave her acceptance speech in oslo. She stated the prize "had drawn the attention of the arena to the warfare for democracy and human rights in burma [Myanmar]".

"burma is a country of many ethnic nationalities and religion in its destiny may be based most effective on a real spirit of union," she stated, earlier than reading a number of her "preferred passages" from the everyday assertion of human rights.

"ultimately our intention must be to create a international loose from the displaced, the homeless and the hopeless, a international of which each and every nook is a real sanctuary in which the population will have the liberty and the potential to stay in peace".

They're the phrases of a person who, for many years, become hailed as the heroine of the human rights network. From the early Nineties until her very last release from house arrest in 2010 she turned into a brave image of defiance in opposition to what was then a brutal army dictatorship.Staying quiet
The identical yr she delivered her nobel speech, a pandemic of communal violence in myanmar saw extra than one hundred,000 rohingya human beings displaced and pressured to live in makeshift refugee camps. At least 2 hundred people were killed in fierce clashes among buddhist and muslim groups in rakhine kingdom.

Ms suu kyi, who turned into leader of the opposition at the time, sought to reassure the international community and pledged to "abide via our dedication to human rights and democratic cost".

But critics accused her of staying quiet, and one senior british minister told the independent newspaper: "frankly, i'd anticipate her to offer ethical management in this challenge but she hasn't simply spoken approximately it in any respect."

The displacement of the rohingya persisted in 2013, and with the aid of the autumn greater than one hundred forty,000 humans were compelled to leave their homes. The violence had spread from rakhine kingdom to other areas along with vital myanmar, and giant international assistance turned into being channelled via ngos and un agencies.Blaming authorities
Ms suu kyi spoke to the bbc's mishal husain about the disaster in october of that year. She blamed the ongoing violence on a "weather of fear", and denied that muslims have been subjected to ethnic cleansing.

"muslims had been focused but buddhists have additionally been subjected to violence," she said. "this fear is what's leading to all this problem".

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She stated that it become right down to the authorities to carry an give up to the violence.

"that is the end result of our sufferings below a dictatorial regime. I assume that in case you stay beneath a dictatorship for many years human beings do no longer like to believe one another - a dictatorship generates a weather of distrust," she introduced.

In 2015, ms suu kyi confronted calls from round the arena to sentence the continuing disaster. The dalai lama said that he had twice advised her to behave over the difficulty.

"i met her  instances, first in london after which the czech republ­ic. I noted approximately this problem and he or she instructed me she determined some problems, that things had been no longer simple however very complex," he informed the australian.In november of that year, ms suu kyi's countrywide league for democracy birthday celebration received a landslide election victory. Masses of thousands of people, together with the muslim rohingya, have been no longer allowed to vote, and no balloting came about in seven areas where ethnic war changed into rife.

She spoke to the bbc's fergal keane approximately the rohingya disaster as votes have been nevertheless being counted. "prejudice is not removed without problems and hatred is not going to be eliminated without difficulty… i am confident the outstanding majority of the people need peace… they do no longer want to stay on a weight loss plan of hate and fear," she stated.

Ms suu kyi may want to now not defer duty to the authorities. Her inventory reaction before the 2015 election became that it turned into a trouble for the leadership to clear up. Now she had to show she become inclined to cope with it.

However she unearths herself in an awkward function.

Ms suu kyi makes maximum of the essential choices, however the military keeps manipulate of three important ministries - domestic affairs, defence and border affairs. Meaning it additionally controls the police. The military is the actual electricity in northern rakhine country, alongside the border with bangladesh.

So ms suu kyi has little or no manipulate over occasions there. Speaking out in support of the rohingya could almost really spark off an irritated response from buddhist nationalists and army officers. Now not to say the majority who have little or no sympathy for the rohingya.

This is going some way to explaining why she has not often spoken out in their favour.