Boris Johnson piles pressure on Aung San Suu Kyi over oppression of Rohingya people
2 min read
Boris Johnson has called on Aung San Suu Kyi to act to protect Burma's Rohingya people amid growing condemnation of her silence on their plight.
The Foreign Secretary said the Nobel Peace Prize winner must speak out on the "abomination" which has seen hundreds of thousands either killed or forced to flee their homes.
The Rohingya are a mostly Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority Rakhine state in the west of Burma.
They have lived in the country for generations, but are seen as illegal immigrants and denied citizenship.
Burmese security officials and insurgents from the Rohingya have accused each other of burning down villages and committing atrocities in the region.
An estimated 370,000 have fled their communities to escape the killings, but so far Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's de facto Prime Minister, has failed to condemn the atrocities.
Speaking at a press conference in the Foreign Office with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Mr Johnson said: "Let's be clear, she led Burma after a period of decades of repression by a military junta. I yield to no one in my admiration of what she stood for and the way she fought for democracy.
"But I think it's It's now vital for her to use that moral capital and that authority to make the point about the suffering of the people of Rakhine. Nobody wants to see a return of military rule in Burma. Nobody wants to see a return of the generals.
"But it's for her now to make clear that this is an abomination and that these people will be allowed back to Burma and that preparation is being made and that the abuses of their human rights and the killings will stop."
Mr Tillerson said it was a "defining moment" for Burma.
He said: "I appreciate the difficult and complex situation Aung San Suu Kyi finds herself in, and it's important that the global community speak out in support of what we all know the expectation is towards the treatment of people, regardless of their ethnicity. This persecution must stop."
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
