Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has blamed the international community for stoking tension between the Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslims.In an exclusive interview with Singapore state-owned broadcaster Channel News Asia, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said: “I would appreciate it so much if the international community would help us to maintain peace and stability, and to make progress in building better relations between the two communities, instead of always drumming up cause for bigger fires of resentment.”Asked if the problem is intractable, she said no.
“We have managed to keep the situation under control and to calm it down,” she stated.Calling upon the international community to understand the situation, she explained that the issue is a highly sensitive and delicate one.She said: “It’s not just Muslims who are nervous and worried. The Rakhine are worried too, they are worried about the fact that they are shrinking as a Rakhine population percentage-wise, and of course, we cannot ignore the fact that the relationship between the two communities has not been good and we want to try to make it better.”But it doesn’t help if everybody is just concentrating on the negative side of the situation in spite of the fact that there were attacks against police outposts which began on Oct 9.”When it was put to her that it is not solely the international community that is the root of the problem, Ms Suu Kyi said: “I know that. I’m not saying there are no difficulties, but it helps if people recognise the difficulty and are more focused on resolving these difficulties rather than exaggerating them so that everything seems worse than it really is.”In Myanmar’s northwest, an army crackdown has killed at least 86 people and sent 10,000 fleeing to Bangladesh, said UN officials.Soldiers have poured into the north of Rakhine State, close to the frontier with Bangladesh, after attacks on border posts on 9 October that killed nine police officers. Humanitarian aid has been cut off to the area, which is closed to outside observers.Myanmar’s military and the government have rejected allegations by residents and human rights groups that soldiers have raped Rohingya women, burned houses and killed civilians during the operation.
source:UNB
