Myanmar’s de-facto leader and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday broke her silence on the escalating crisis in the Rakhine state. In a televised address from the country’s capital Naypyidaw, she said her government is also concerned about the Rohingya crisis, ANI reported.

“We too are concerned. We want to find out what the real problems are,” Suu Kyi said in her State of the Union address. “There have been allegations and counter-allegations. We have to listen to all of them. We have to make sure those allegations are based on solid evidence before we take action”. However she added, “We are concerned to hear that numbers of Muslims are fleeing across the border to Bangladesh. We want to find out why this exodus is happening.” She said the Myanmar government was ready to take back the Rohingya refugees subject to a “verification process”.

Suu Kyi claimed that the majority of Rohingya villages had not been affected by violence. She said the military, which has been accused of massacre and arson, had been asked to exercise restraint and avoid any “collateral damage”. She also said that most Muslims in Myanmar had not joined the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

However, Suu Kyi also claimed that Myanmar does not fear international scrutiny. “I’m aware of the fact that the world’s attention is focused on the situation in Rakhine state. As a responsible member of the community of nations Myanmar does not fear international scrutiny.” She claimed that it was sad that the world was focused only on Myanmar’s problems.

UN investigation

Meanwhile, United Nations investigators on Tuesday said they needed “full and unfettered access” to Myanmar to assess the situation prevailing in the country, reported AFP. “We will go where the evidence leads us,” Marzuki Darusman, the head of the UN fact-finding mission in Myanmar said. He requested a six-month extension of the investigation, to September 2018. However, Myanmar’s ambassador to the UN Htin Lynn said Darusman’s investigation was “not a helpful course of action.”

Myanmar had earlier refuted concerns expressed by the UN about a possible ethnic cleansing. The officials have said they are only responding to militant attacks. Myanmar’s Army Chief Min Aung Hlaing referred to members of the Rohingya community as “extremist Bengalis” who he said were trying to establish a stronghold in Buthidaung and Maungtaw.

On September 16, the UN placed the total number of Rohingya Muslims who had fled to Bangladesh at 4,09,000 since violence erupted in Rakhine state on August 25. The influx has overwhelmed Bangladesh’s border town Cox’s Bazar where 3,00,000 people had already taken shelter at camps.

On Sunday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had said that Suu Kyi had one “last chance” to stop the army offensive in Myanmar. “If she does not reverse the situation now, then I think the tragedy will be absolutely horrible, and unfortunately then I don’t see how this can be reversed in the future,” he had told BBC in an interview.

The Rohingya crisis

Rohingyas have been denied citizenship in Myanmar, and are classified as illegal immigrants, despite them claiming roots going back centuries in the country. The community has been subjected to violence by the Buddhist majority and the Army in Myanmar. The country’s de-facto leader and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticised for failing to stand up for more than 10 lakh stateless Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine.