Suu Kyi denies ethnic cleansing of Myanmar minority

Aung San Suu Kyi has denied security forces have carried out ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, speaking to the BBC after the UN rights council agreed to investigate allegations of rape, murder and torture against the army.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, the Nobel peace prize winner and de-facto leader of Myanmar acknowledged problems in Rakhine state, where most Rohingya people live, but she said ethnic cleansing was "too strong" a term to use.

"I don't think there is ethnic cleansing going on. I think ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is happening," she said.

"I think there is a lot of hostility there - it is Muslims killing Muslims as well, if they think they are co-operating with the authorities. It is not just a matter of ethnic cleansing as you put it - it is a matter of people on different sides of the divide, and this divide we are trying to close up,” she added.

Rights groups say hundreds of the stateless group were killed in a months-long army crackdown following deadly attacks on Myanmar border police posts.

Almost 75,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh where they have related grisly accounts of army abuse.

Suu Kyi has also not condemned the crackdown, which UN investigators who spoke to escapees said likely amounted to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

Myanmar has launched its own domestic probe into possible crimes in Rahkine and appointed former UN chief Kofi Annan to head a commission tasked with healing long-simmering divisions between Buddhists and Muslims.

Aung San Suu Kyi said the army was “not free to rape, pillage and torture”.

“They are free to go in and fight. And of course, that is in the constitution … Military matters are to be left to the army,” she said, adding that she aimed to amend the constitution.

In December, more than a dozen fellow Nobel laureates wrote an open letter to the UN security council warning of a tragedy “amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity” in Rakhine, citing the “potential for genocide”.