Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi says Rakhine commission will help heal wounds
The Southeast Asian country set up the commission, headed by Kofi Annan, last month to help find solutions to ‘protracted issues’ in the restive region
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed confidence on Monday that former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and a commission he is leading to resolve religious conflict in western Rakhine state will help heal the “wounds of our people”, even as the state’s most powerful political party refused to meet with the panel.
Majority Buddhists in Rakhine and across Myanmar consider Rohingya to be Bangladeshis living in the country illegally, though the ethnic group has been in Myanmar for generations. Hundreds of Rohingya were killed and tens of thousands forced to flee their homes in 2012 unrest, and many continue to be confined to squalid camps.
“You will see for yourself all the problems on the ground now,” Suu Kyi, officially Myanmar state counsellor and foreign minister, told commission members at a news conference. “You will be able to assess for yourself of the roots of the problems itself, not in one day, not in one week. But I am confident that you will get there, that you will find the answers because you are truly intent on looking for them.”
“There is a wound that hurts all of us,” Suu Kyi said. “And it is because we wish to heal all the wounds of our nation, all the wounds of our people that we look toward Kofi Annan and all the members of the commission to help us to find a way forward.”
