Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to miss next week’s UN General Assembly as criticism of her handling of the Rohingya crisis grows.
Some 370,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed to Bangladesh since violence in Rakhine state escalated last month.
Ms Suu Kyi is facing allegations from supporters in the West that she has failed to speak out over the violence.
A government spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi, Zaw Htay, said “the state councillor will not attend” the General Assembly, where she spoke last year. He did not give further details.
Another spokesman, Aung Shin, told Reuters news agency that “perhaps” Ms Suu Kyi has “more pressing matters to deal with”, adding: “She’s never afraid of facing criticism or confronting problems.”
Ms Suu Kyi was due to participate in discussions at the General Assembly session in New York from 19 to 25 September.
In her first address to the General Assembly as national leader in September last year, Ms Suu Kyi defended her government’s efforts to resolve the crisis over the treatment of the Rohingyas. -bbc
