Suu Kyi
'Burying Head in Sand' Over Rohingya Crisis
Refugees reject Aung San Suu Kyi's claim that
Rohingya are safe in Myanmar, as Amnesty accuses her
of victim blaming.
By Saif Khalid
September 19,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
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Rohingya refugees who
fled violence in
Myanmar have
dismissed leader Aung San Suu Kyi's
stated concern over
their plight, as activists accused her government of
"burying their heads in the sand" over violence
tearing through Rakhine state.
In a
sprawling and squalid camp on the Bangladesh-Myanmar
border,
Rohingya refugees
on Tuesday rejected Aung San Suu Kyi's claim that
many members of their minority group were safe in
Myanmar and said her vow to repatriate displaced
Rohingya carried no weight.
"Suu Kyi is
a traitor. We can't rely on her words," said Sultan
Ahmed, who arrived in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh
along with hundreds of thousands of refugees two
weeks ago.
The
80-year-old told Al Jazeera that he did not believe
the de facto leader would act on her words because
"everything is run and decided by the army".
Aung San
Suu Kyi "is only a name there. Nobody cares about
her," he said.
The
Nobel Peace Prize laureate has faced fierce
international criticism for saying little about the
abuses faced by the
Rohingya.
She broke
her silence on Tuesday, condemning "all human rights
violations" in Rakhine State, and vowing to take
action against those who commit abuses.
However, she failed to comment on the military
offensive that sent more than 420,000 Rohingya
pouring across the
border into
Bangladesh, an
operation the
UN has branded as
"ethnic cleansing".
Abdul
Hafiz, a Rohingya man in Kutupalong, was angered by
Aung San Suu Kyi's implication that Rohingya were
themselves responsible for their plight.
Aung San
Suu Kyi had said more than half of Rohingya villages
were not affected by the violence, and invited
diplomats and observers to visit those villages so
they could learn why Buddhists and Muslims "are not
at each other's throats in these particular areas".
"Let them
see the plight of the people there," Hafiz told the
Associated Press news agency.
"They have
kept people in confinement. Let the world media know
from them whether we are tortured or living in joy."
Shah Ahmed,
a 60-year-old refugee who fled Maungdaw in northern
Rakhine State two weeks ago, said he also no longer
trusted Aung San Suu Kyi.
But he told
Al Jazeera he was ready to return to his village if
her government would "ensure peace, our safety and
return of our property".
Mixed responses
Human
rights groups were sceptical too, criticising Aung
San Suu Kyi for failing to condemn the army's
alleged abuses, as well as her claim that army
operations had ceased on September 5.
"While it
was positive to hear Aung San Suu Kyi condemn human
rights violations in Rakhine state, she is still
silent about the role of the security forces,"
Amnesty said in a statement.
"Aung San
Suu Kyi today demonstrated that she and her
government are still burying their heads in the sand
over the horrors unfolding in Rakhine State," the
rights group said.
"At times, her speech amounted to
little more than a mix of untruths and victim
blaming."
Phil
Robertson of
Human Rights Watch,
referring to Aung San Suu Kyi's assertion that
military operations had ended, asked: "If that is
true, then who is burning all the villages we've
seen in the past two weeks?"
He said
satellite images showed about half of all Rohingya
villages had been torched and it was time that Aung
San Suu Kyi, the government and the military faced
the fact that the security forces "don't follow a
code of conduct and shoot and kill who they want".
Ronan Lee,
a Rohingya researcher at Deakin University, said
Aung San Suu Kyi's speech was "deeply concerning
from a humanitarian point of view".
It was
likely to provide the military with "genuine solace
and certainty that she will not call on them to stop
what they are doing," he told Al Jazeera from
Melbourne.
Meanwhile,
foreign diplomats who were present in Naypyidaw as
she gave her speech gave an overall positive
reaction to her address.
The
ambassador of China, Hong Liang, welcomed Aung San
Suu Kyi's speech saying it would improve
understanding. Nikolay Listopadov, Russia's
ambassador to Myanmar, said there was no evidence of
ethnic cleaning.
Mohammad
Sufiur Rahman, Bangladesh's ambassador to Myanmar,
said: "I simply say one thing, that whatever she
said is encouraging and we have to implement that in
the right spirit."
US Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State Patrick Murphy also
attended the address but did not comment.
Additional
reporting by Saif Khalid in Cox's Bazar. Follow him
on Twitter
@msaifkhalid
This
article was first published by
Al Jazeera
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