Myanmar slams US diplomat who attacked Aung San Suu Kyi’s ‘absence of moral leadership’ on plight of Rohingya
Bill Richardson, a former Clinton administration cabinet member, quit as the 10-member advisory board was making its first visit to western Rakhine State, from where nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled in recent months
Myanmar accused US diplomat Bill Richardson on Thursday of a “personal attack” on Aung San Suu Kyi after an excoriating takedown of the former darling of the global rights community as he resigned from a panel on the Rohingya crisis.
One-time Suu Kyi ally Richardson was one of five foreign members hand-picked by Myanmar’s civilian leader to serve on the committee.
But after a three-day visit to Myanmar, Richardson struck out at his hosts, saying he could not in “good conscience” sit on a panel he feared would only “whitewash” the causes of the Rohingya crisis.
He tore into the Nobel laureate Suu Kyi for an “absence of moral leadership” over Rakhine and described her “furious response” to his calls to free two Reuters journalists arrested while covering the crisis.
A Myanmar government spokesman hit back on Thursday, accusing the former New Mexico Governor Richardson of overstepping the mark in his stinging resignation letter.