Petrol bomb thrown at Suu Kyi’s lakeside villa in Yangon

Yangon : A man threw a petrol bomb at the lakeside Yangon compound of Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi today, officials said, a rare attack on a national figurehead who enjoys strong domestic support but has drawn global outcry over her reticence to speak up for the Rohingya.

There was little damage caused by the attack, Kyi Toe, an official from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party wrote in a Facebook posting.

“Nothing was destroyed or burned… Our respected security forces are continuing their work so they can arrest the culprit,” he added.

But the attack is symbolic — Suu Kyi was held for long years at the house by the former junta, occasionally leaning over the famous gates in appearances that galavanised the democracy movement. Government spokesman Zaw Htay confirmed the attack, without speculating on a possible motive. But he circulated a photo on his Facebook page of a suspect wearing a pink t-shirt and blue longyi. The democracy heroine has lost much of her lustre in the eyes of the international community over her perceived failure to speak up on behalf of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim community, reports AFP.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled a brutal military crackdown in northern Rakhine state into refugee camps in Bangladesh since August, bringing with them testimony of murder, rape and arson. US diplomat Bill Richardson was the latest to lambast Suu Kyi last week as he resigned from her panel set up to ease communal tensions in Rakhine.