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 .
Buddhist nationalists shout slogans during a protest at their camp at entrance of a pagoda on Thursday in Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar nationalist Buddhist monks and laymen gathered for a protest against the government led by the country's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy party, claiming the government has neglected the national interest and fail to hold the country's most vulnerable ethnic Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine State of the country's west.
KFC's grinning Colonel Sanders and his goatee are among the few prominent signs of U.S. brands or business in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon. That will likely change after President Barack Obama ended most remaining U.S. sanctions against this fledgling democracy on Oct. 7. But much hinges on how the government led by former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi revamps the country's outdated laws and other policies.
After two decades of economic sanctions on Myanmar, the US has decided to lift them. The announcement was made following a meeting between President Barack Obama and Myanmar's State Counsellor-cum-Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi at the White House on Sept 14. For many in Myanmar and the US, the lifting of economic sanctions is a win-win for both the Obama and Suu Kyi administrations.
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former U.N. chief Kofi Annan on Monday oversaw the first meeting of a panel tasked with bringing peace to a region where violence between Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims has cast a pall over the country's democratic transition. The plight of the Rohingya has raised questions about Suu Kyi's commitment to human rights and represents a politically sensitive issue for her National League for Democracy, which won a landslide election victory last year.