Aung San Suu Kyi admits Rohingya Crisis Could Have Handled Properly for the First Time

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has for the first time accepted that her government could have handled the situation in Rakhine state in a better way. The violence in the state since last year has led to the forced displacement of more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims. 

Suu Kyi said her government has tried to ensure development and rule of law. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Vietnam she said, “There are of course ways in which we, with hindsight, might think that the situation could have been handled better. But we believe that for the sake of long-term stability and security we have to be fair to all sides. The rule of law must apply to everybody. We cannot choose and pick whom should be protected by rule of law”.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were forced to flee Rakhine into neighboring Bangladesh after the violent government crackdown in the month of August last year, thereby making it one of the Asia’s worst refugee crisis. Many of those who crossed the border and have survived the exodus, have recounted terrible stories of deaths, rapes that have forced them to drive out of their own land and to migrate to foreign lands.

Later an independent United Nations investigation has been carried out into alleged human rights abuses against the Rohingyas and the team has come to the conclusion that Myanmar’s military leadership is responsible for all this and they are to be investigated and prosecuted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Though Myanmar’s military leadership has time and again denied their involvement in attacking the unarmed Rohingyas. 

In the world economic forum, she was also asked about the arrest of the two Reuters journalists, who were jailed earlier this month for seven years after being found guilty of breaching the country’s Official Secrets Act. Though both the journalists have claimed that they were trying to uncover the massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine.

Speaking on the arrest of two journalists for the first time. She clarified that the two men, Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were not jailed because they were journalists, but were jailed for breaking the country’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act. She said, “I wonder whether very many people have actually read the summary of the judgment which had nothing to do with freedom of expression at all, it had to do with the Official Secrets Act. But I don't think anybody has actually bothered to read it”. She also said that both of them are free to appeal again for judgment.

In the past few months Suu Kyi has to face criticism for her role in dealing with the Rohingya crisis and the jailing of the two Journalists. Many international bodies even called for the Nobel Peace laureate to be stripped of the honor. As UN investigators into the Rohingya crisis found that Myanmar’s civilian government under the mentorship of Suu Kyi has contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes through their acts and omissions.