Aung San Suu Kyi and the long silence on ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas in Myanmar

Twenty-five days after violence intensified in the Rakhine state of Myanmar and Rohingya Muslims were forced to flee to Bangladesh, Aung San Suu Kyi, the state counsellor and de-facto leader, finally broke her silence on the crisis today.

"Throughout the year, we continued with our programme of development and establishment of peace," Suu Kyi said, adding that Myanmar is ready to "start a refugee verification process for those who wish to return".

Yet again, Aung San Suu Kyi chose to steer clear from condemning what a UN official called "textbook example of ethic cleansing" in Rakhine and instead said that police outposts were attacked on August 25 and "consequently government declared Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army a terrorist group".

The Amnesty International today slammed Aung San Suu Kyi and the Myanmar government for "burying their heads in the sands" and accused the Nobel Peace Prize winner for staying silent on the alleged atrocities committed by the military on Rohingyas.

The last time Aung San Suu Kyi spoke on the Rohingya crisis on September 6, she blamed "terrorists" for a "huge iceberg of misinformation". In a statement on Facebook, the Nobel prize winner said the Myanmar government has "already started defending all the people in Rakhine in the best way possible" and warned against misinformation.

IS SUU KYI COMPLICIT IN THE CRIMES AGAINST ROHINGYAS?

Many have questioned Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, for turning a blind eye to the alleged persecution of Rohingyas in Rakhine which has led to more than 4 lakh of them fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh since the August 25 violence.

A few days ago, fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai urged Suu Kyi to condemn the "shameful" treatment of Rohingyas in Myanmar.

"Over the last several years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same. The world is waiting and the Rohingya Muslims are waiting," Malala said in a statement she shared on Twitter.

Some like British writer and activist George Monbiot in his column for The Guardian asked if Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel prize should be revoked as by staying silent on the violence against Rohingyas she is "complicit in crimes against humanity".

Monbiot says that despite the military being all-powerful in Myanmar, Suu Kyi "possesses one power in abundance: the power to speak out". "Rather than deploying it, her response amounts to a mixture of silence, the denial of well-documented violence, and the obstruction of humanitarian aid," writes Monbiot.   

WHEN THE WORLD SAW SUU KYI AS A BEACON OF HOPE

Twenty five years after her Nobel Prize win, Aung San Suu Kyi became the state counsellor of Myanmar, the country's de facto head.

In April 2016, the newly-elected government of Myanmar passed a bill in the Assembly of the Union to create a special post for the leader of the National League for Democracy. Married to a British, Michael Aris, Suu Kyi was barred constitutionally from becoming the President of Myanmar.

The world cheered as Suu Kyi, seen as someone who fought the oppressive military junta, became a part of the Myanmar government. Her admirers were confident that she would deal with the Rohingya issue sensitively.

When Suu Kyi delivered her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in 2012, 21 years after winning the prize, she said that the Nobel Committee in awarding her the prize was "recognising that the oppressed and the isolated in Burma were also a part of the world".

Five years after her Nobel speech, it seems that while the Nobel Committee recognised the oppressed in Burma/Myanmar, but she clearly has not by choosing to stay silent on the "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingyas in Rakhine.

DO WATCH: Person of interest: Aung San Suu Kyi under scrutiny for silence over Rohingya Muslims crisis