Wednesday 08 / May / 2024
Tokyo/Yangon: Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Friday investigations were underway into the situation in Rakhine State, where many members of a Muslim minority live and where human rights workers say conflict has led to abuse of civilians by the military.
Also on Friday, Myanmar officials said a police officer was killed and one wounded in an assault on a guard post in northwestern Rakhine State, in the latest violence in the area.
Suu Kyi, speaking on a visit to Tokyo, told a news conference the government was trying to get to the root of the matter, and would not accuse anyone until all the evidence was in, at which point any action would be taken in accordance with due legal process.
"We have been very careful not to blame anybody in particular unless we have complete evidence as to who has been responsible for what," she said, noting that Muslims had been killed as well as police officers and the government had not "tried to hide any of this".
Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi is in Japan on a five-day visit to court investment and aid, as an upsurge in violence against the persecuted minority Rohingya at home poses the worst crisis of her six months in power.
She has faced mounting criticism abroad for her government's handling of the crisis in Rakhine State, where soldiers are accused of raping and killing civilians and where aid workers were refused access until the government on Thursday agreed to allow such work to resume.
"We are trying to get to the root of the matter," Suu Kyi told the news conference, adding everybody had to be considered innocent until proven guilty.
"We will be going through the due process and all the incidents that have taken place... will be examined and it will be done in accordance with our laws and regulations," she said.
"We will find out what really happened and then action will be taken accordingly."
Earlier, Suu Kyi told Japanese business executives that Myanmar needed peace to carry out sustainable development.
Meanwhile, the latest attack came late on Thursday, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said, shortly after foreign diplomats visited villages in the region and called for an investigation into the October attacks and the subsequent army sweep.
Five people, some carrying pistols, attacked the guard post on three motorcycles in a village near the town of Maungdaw, according to police major Kyaw Mya Win. Police repelled the attackers some of whom were wounded, the daily said.
Police later found a bomb and four pistol holsters together with the motorbikes, said Myint Kyaw, spokesman for the Ministry of Information. He said later police also found a pistol and spent bullet casings.
Police and government officials said they could not confirm the identity of the attackers or whether the weapons they used were among some looted in the October 9 assaults.
"We don't have the details of this attack, but if it's confirmed to be another attack against the border guard forces, we are deeply concerned," the top UN representative in Myanmar, Renata Lok-Dessallien, said.
She led the diplomatic mission to Maungdaw this week.
In separate incidents, security forces made several arrests of suspected militants in the area, the state-run daily said without giving details. Security forces also discovered some arms and ammunition looted in the October 9 attacks, it said.
