Zeid al-Hussein says Aung San Suu Kyi could have returned to house arrest instead of endorsing the crackdown on Rohingyas
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi should have resigned as Myanmar's de-facto leader over the army's mass killings of Rohingya Muslims, the UN's human rights chief has said. Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said the Nobel Peace prize winner should have risked returning to house arrest rather than being a "spokesperson of the Burmese military".
Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein. Pics/AFP
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His comments come after the Nobel committee said Suu Kyi would not be stripped of the prize she was awarded in 1991 for campaigning for democracy, despite a UN report concluding Myanmar's army had carried out genocide against the Rohingya people. The Buddhist-majority country's military, which has been accused of systematic ethnic cleansing, has rejected the report.
Suu Kyi last year claimed an "iceberg of misinformation" was fuelling allegations of Rohingya persecution. Her silence over the mass killings has previously been likened to "legitimising genocide".
"She was in a position to do something," Hussein told the BBC. "She could have stayed quiet – or even better, she could have resigned. "She could have said, 'Thank you very much, I will resign, I will go back into house arrest'."
Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest because of her campaign to bring democracy to Myanmar, which was ruled by a military junta for 49 years. Her efforts made her an international symbol of courage and peaceful resistance to oppression.
Thousands affected in dam flooding
Bago: Rescuers in boats negotiated muddy waters yesterday to reach thousands stranded in central Myanmar after a dam overflowed, sending a torrent of water across farmland and villages. No casualties have yet been reported but state media said more than 63,000 people in Bago region were affected after the Swar Chaung dam overflowed yesterday morning. The dam's spillway was broken by seasonal rainfall.
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