We are outraged and disappointed at Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi's denial of the atrocities that amount to ethnic cleansing, committed by Myanmarese security forces on Rohyingya Muslims. It is unfathomable that the Nobel Laureate, internationally known as a defender of human rights, would make this statement in a BBC interview. She has even claimed that the conflict was due to 'Muslims killing Muslims as well' completely ignoring the UN report that has found mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingyas by the Myanmar army and police.

The report was based on interviews with survivors in Bangladesh and revealed horrific accounts of Rohingya women, children and men being brutally killed and tortured. Is Suu Kyi trying to say that all these accounts have been made up? Apart from the UN investigations, local and international media have continuously reported the campaign of killing and rape of Rohingya people who have been denied citizenship for decades because of their ethnicity and religion. Around 75,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to flee the latest bout of violence in October 2016. If this isn't ethnic cleansing, what is?

Myanmar says its operations, which began last October, were aimed at tracking down militants who attacked police border posts in Rakhine. If that were so how can it justify the mass murders of men, the execution of babies and rapes of women as fleeing Rohingyas have told UN workers? 

The lukewarm reassurance made by Suu Kyi in the BBC interview that "if they come back they will be safe" rings hollow in the wake of her outright denial of the atrocities committed. Instead of denial she should make all out efforts to see that the persecution of Rohingyas are stopped, that the perpetrators are held to account and that Rohingyas are given their rightful status in their homeland, Myanmar.