Arakan News Agency
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday canceled a speech and a question-and-answer session in Sydney after a “health problem”, organizers said.
Suu Kyi is facing international criticism of her public clout over a repressive military campaign in Myanmar’s Arakan province, where about 700,000 Muslim Rohingya Muslims fled to neighboring Bangladesh.
Suu Kyi, who took part in a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Australia from Friday to Sunday, visited Canberra for talks with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday. She was due to deliver an important speech at the Lowy Institute of Research in Sydney on Tuesday.
The question-and-answer session would have been the only public statements of the Nobel laureate during her visit to Australia.
“The Myanmar Embassy (Burma’s other name) told the Lowy Institute that the state counselor will not be able to participate in this session because she feels disconcerted,” said a spokesman for the research center. “It was therefore canceled.”
The humanitarian crisis in Rohingya was a key theme at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, where other leaders asked the Myanmar leader questions about the crisis at Sunday’s meeting, according to Turnbull.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razzaq warned Saturday that the crisis could threaten regional security as victims could fall victim to extremist groups such as the Islamic state.
Rohingya’s flight has caused a rare tension in the regional assembly. Muslim-majority Malaysia has called for ASEAN-led investigations into allegations of abuses by the military.
Demonstrations were held on the sidelines of the summit to denounce human rights abuses, targeting Suu Kyi, who was criticized by the protesters alongside Cambodia’s powerful Prime Minister Hun Sen and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.
