Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2060641/aung-san-suu-kyi-let-down-persecuted-rohingyas
Comment/ Opinion

Aung San Suu Kyi a let-down for persecuted Rohingyas

Nobel laureate was expected to help Myanmar’s oppressed ethnic minority when she was voted into power; instead she has turned her back on them

Myanmar's Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi speaks at the International Enterprise Singapore Global Conversations round table event in Singapore. Photo: AP

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s taking power in Myanmar should have made a difference for the country’s Rohingyas, considered by some the world’s most persecuted ethnic minority. The landslide win for her party in elections in 2015 that overturned decades of military rule ushered in hope for improved human rights. But there has been little change, particularly for the one million-strong Muslim group in northwestern Rakhine state. In place of peace and protection there has been a fresh crackdown that has led to accusations that soldiers have killed, raped and tortured.

More than a dozen fellow Nobel winners have criticised Suu Kyi for the crackdown, warning it could amount to “ethnic cleansing”; a rare rift has developed within the Association of South East Asian Nations, with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak being particularly critical. Suu Kyi and her government have denied the claims, which cannot be independently verified because aid workers and journalists have been barred from the area. An investigation commission said in an interim report last week that no evidence of abuses by security forces had been found. But the findings coincided with the release of a video made by a border guard appearing to show Rohingya villagers being beaten and kicked.