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Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said the world is facing instability and conflict in part because illegal immigration spreads terrorism in a speech Monday that comes as her country is accused of violently pushing out hundreds of thousands of unwanted Rohingya Muslims. Suu Kyi did not directly mention the refugee exodus as she welcomed European and Asian foreign ministers to Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar.
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi says the world is facing instability and conflict in part because illegal immigration spreads terrorism in a speech that comes as her country is accused of violently pushing out hundreds of thousands of unwanted Rohingya Muslims. Suu Kyi did not directly mention the refugee exodus in her speech to welcome European and Asian foreign ministers in Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar.
The bill, introduced by members of the U.S. Senate on the eve of Donald Trump's departure on his first trip to Asia since becoming president in January, seeks to reimpose some sanctions lifted last year as Myanmar returned to democracy. The measure would impose targeted sanctions and travel curbs on Myanmar military officials and bar the United States from supplying most assistance to the military until perpetrators of atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar's western Rakhine State are held accountable.
Myanmar's military has said it is investigating its operations in violence-wracked Rakhine state, where the United Nations has accused troops of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims. In the last seven weeks, more than half a million Rohingya have fled Rakhine and crossed into neighbouring Bangladesh, shocking the globe with accounts of Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist mobs murdering and raping civilians before torching their villages to the ground.
Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi broke her silence on Rakhine state violence Thursday, calling for the return of refugees from Bangladesh. Suu Kyi called for national unity in addressing the problem of violence in Rakhine and other regions in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, as well as the safe return of "those who are now in Bangladesh" in a Thursday televised address, according to the Associated Press .
The United States will contribute nearly $32 million in humanitarian aid to help Rohingya Muslim refugees, the State Department said Wednesday, in the Trump administration's first major response to the mass exodus from Myanmar. The new money for food, medical care, water, sanitation and shelter comes as the U.S. joins a growing chorus of international condemnation over the minority group's plight.
Myanmar plans to open new displacement camps for Rohingya in violence-ridden Rakhine State, sparking fears that members of the Muslim minority not already driven out of the country will instead be forcibly interned. More than 420,000 Rohingya - around two thirds of the ethnic minority's estimated population in northern Rakhine State - have fled to Bangladesh this past month amid a military crackdown prompted by a Rohingya militant group's coordinated attacks on 25 August.
Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, walks off the stage after delivering a speech in the capital, Naypyitaw, that defended her country against international criticism over the treatment of Rohingya Muslims. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi condemned all human rights violations on Tuesday and said anyone responsible for abuses in troubled Rakhine State would face the law.
Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a speech to the nation over Rakhine and Rohingya situation, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar September 19, 2017. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday addressed the Rohingya crisis, saying her government was prepared to begin a verification process for those who wish to return to the country.
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has condemned all human rights violations, saying anyone responsible for abuses in troubled Rakhine State would face the law, and feels deeply for the suffering of everyone caught up in conflict there. In her first address to the nation since attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on August 25 sparked a military response that has forced more than 410,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, Suu Kyi said on Tuesday that Myanmar did not fear international scrutiny and was committed to a sustainable solution to the conflict.
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 and battered her reputation as a defender of the downtrodden. In a press conference, government spokesperson 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 for failing to speak up in the defence of the Rohinyga minority, would skip the United Nations General Assembly next week to tackle the crisis unfurling at home.
To a certain extent, Aung San Suu Kyi is a false prophet. Glorified by the west for many years, she was made a 'democracy icon' because she opposed the same forces in her country, Burma, at the time that the US-led western coalition isolated Rangoon for its alliance with China.
UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein accused Myanmar of waging a "systematic attack" on the Rohingya. The situation in Myanmar is a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing", the United Nations said on Monday, as the number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh topped 300,000.
Amid news of Rohingya Muslims risking their lives to escape escalating violence in Myanmar, Ishaque Mohamed, one of only 11 Rohingya people known to be living in South Korea, feels guilty that he is safe and well. His mother and brother, who he left behind in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine, are among thousands on a perilous journey -- either on foot or by boat -- to flee what they call "ethnic cleansing" in the nation.
Don't expect the United States to step in and resolve what is increasingly being describing as an ethnic cleansing campaign against Myanmar's downtrodden Rohingya Muslims. Not wanting to undermine the Asian country's democratic hero, the U.S. is cautiously criticizing what looks like a forced exodus of more than a quarter-million Rohingya in the last two weeks as Myanmar's military responds with hammer force to insurgent attacks.
Jakarta, Indonesia: Hundreds of protesters in Indonesia rallied for the third straight day on Monday as Muslim nations across Asia voiced growing concern over Myanmar's brutal military crackdown against its Rohingya Muslim minority. Outside the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta, the demonstrators, mostly hijab-clad women, demanded that the Indonesian government pressure neighbouring Myanmar to stop the military operation that has sent tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees to camps in Bangladesh for the second time in a year.
The conflict between the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, and Myanmar officials spilled over last week when more than 2,600 houses were burned down in northwest Myanmar, a Rohingya-majority area, according to Myanmar's government. The government is blaming the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army for the attacks, while Rohingya who are fleeing to Bangladesh claim the Myanmar army carried out a series of killings and arson aimed at forcing them out of the territory.
More than 2,600 houses have been burned down in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmar's northwest in the last week, the government said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest bouts of violence involving the Muslim minority in decades. About 58,600 Rohingya have fled into neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar, according to U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, as aid workers there struggle to cope.
COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Myanmar security forces intensified operations against Rohingya insurgents on Monday, police and other sources said, following three days of clashes with militants in the worst violence involving Myanmar's Muslim minority in five years. The fighting - triggered by coordinated attacks on Friday by insurgents wielding sticks, knives and crude bombs on 30 police posts and an army base - has killed 104 people and led to the flight of large numbers of Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist civilians from the northern part of Rakhine state.
YANGON/COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Myanmar's government said it has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, as thousands more Rohingya Muslims sought to flee across the border to Bangladesh on Sunday. The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said.