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New Delhi:
Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday described violence in west Myanmar
between Buddhists and Muslims as a “huge international tragedy”.
At the same time, she also said that illegal immigration from Bangladesh had to be stopped.
Suu Kyi, on a visit to neighboring India, said she had declined to
speak out on behalf of stateless Rohingya Muslims who live on both
sides of the border because she wanted to promote reconciliation
after recent bloodshed.
Disappointed by her continuous silence on the plight of Rohingya
Muslims and the violence against them, the Indian
Muslim leaders on Wednesday had urged the Mayanmar opposition leader to take a stand on the issue, failing which, they said, her
struggle for restoration of democracy would be incomplete.
"We demand Ms. Kyi to come out of
her cocoon and take a stand on the Rohingya issue. Ms. Kyi’s fight
for democracy will remain incomplete as long as such a large
number of persecuted people live within her own country", the
Muslim leaders said in a joint statement.
More than 100,000 people have been displaced in Myanmar since June
in two major outbreaks of violence in the western state of Rakhine.
Dozens have been killed on both
sides and thousands of homes torched.
“Don’t forget that violence
has been committed by both sides, this is why I prefer not to take
sides and also I want to work towards reconciliation,” she told
the NDTV news channel.
“Is there a lot of illegal crossing of the border (with
Bangladesh) still going on? We have got to put a stop to it,
otherwise there will never be an end to the problem,” she said.
“Bangladesh will say all these
people have come from Burma (Myanmar) and the Burmese say all
these people have come over from Bangladesh.”
The Nobel laureate, who was released
from military house arrest in 2010, has faced criticism from human
rights groups for her muted response to the ethnic violence in her
homeland.
“This is a huge international
tragedy and this is why I keep saying that the government must
have a policy about their citizenship laws,” she said.
Separately, Myanmar ordered 452
prisoners freed yesterday in an apparent goodwill gesture ahead of
a historic visit by President Barack Obama. It was not immediately
clear if any political prisoners were among those granted freedom,
prompting rights groups to renew calls for the government to shed
light on one of the world’s most opaque prison systems.
Myanmar’s government has long
insisted that all prisoners are criminals and releases no official
information on who is a political prisoner, where they are
detained and how many remain jailed.
“This is extremely disappointing
because we haven’t heard of any political prisoners being
released. This is a shame,” said U Naing Naing of the Central
Social Assistance Committee, which helps families of political
prisoners.
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