Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday defended her government’s actions in Rakhine State, where about 7,00,000 Rohingya Muslims fled from a brutal counterinsurgency campaign to neighbouring Bangladesh.
Ms. Suu Kyi said terrorism, not social discrimination or inequality, triggered the crisis. She made the comments in a lecture in Singapore in which she reviewed her two years in power.
“We who are living through the transition in Myanmar view it differently than those who observe it from the outside and who will remain untouched by its outcome,” she said.
Ms. Suu Kyi said it was difficult to say when the Rohingya who fled will be able to return to Rakhine State because her nation needs the cooperation of Bangladesh.
She said Myanmar has mapped out general sites for the resettlement of returning Rohingya, but the timing of the repatriation also depends on Bangladesh.