Myanmar on Thursday accused a top United States diplomat of pursuing “his own agenda” while advising the government on the Rohingya crisis, Reuters reported. The diplomat, Bill Richardson, had said Wednesday he had resigned from the international advisory board Myanmar had set up to discuss the topic.

A statement from the office of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said it became evident in discussions that Richardson’s intent was not to provide advice “but to pursue his own agenda”. The government also accused him of making “personal attacks” on Suu Kyi.

“In view of the difference of opinion that developed, the government decided that his continued participation on the board would not be in the best interest of all concerned,” the statement added.

Bill Richardson had resigned from the panel, saying it was only conducting a “whitewash” and that Aung San Suu Kyi lacked “moral leadership” on the matter, Reuters reported on Thursday. Nearly seven lakh Rohingya Muslims have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh since August 25, 2017, after a militant attack on security forces resulted in a violent crackdown.

“The main reason I am resigning is that this advisory board is a whitewash,” Richardson said, adding that he did not want to be part of a “cheerleading squad” for the government.

Richardson said he got into an argument with Suu Kyi on Monday about the arrest of two Reuters journalists who were reporting on the crisis in Myanmar. Describing Suu Kyi’s response as “furious”, he said she told him it “was not part of the work of the advisory board”.

“She’s not getting good advice from her team,” Richardson said. “I like her enormously and respect her. But she has not shown moral leadership on the Rakhine issue and the allegations made, and I regret that.”

A Myanmar government spokesman said Richardson overstepped the mark, AFP reported. “He should review himself over his personal attack against our State Counsellor,” spokesperson Zaw Htay was quoted as saying. “We understand his emotion about the two Reuters correspondents. However, he needs to understand, rather than blame the Myanmar nation and the State Counsellor.”

Former South African Defence Minister Roelof Meyer, who is also part of the committee, said, “If anybody would say that we are just a rubber stamp or a voice on behalf of the government that would be completely untrue, unfair.”

The crisis

Myanmar treats Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and does not acknowledge their rights as an official ethnic group. 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 1 million stateless Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine.

The United Nations and the United States called it an “ethnic cleansing” of the Muslim minority community. The Human Rights Watch said the Myanmar military massacred people and raped, arbitrarily arrested and set ablaze hundreds of predominantly Rohingya villages in Rakhine.