Myanmar leader Suu Kyi on 1st visit to Rakhine state amid Rohingya exodus

Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, arrived on her first visit to conflict-battered northern Rakhine State on Thursday, AFP reports. The unannounced trip comes as the area has seen most of its Rohingya Muslim population forced out by an army campaign. Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate who leads Myanmar’s pro-democracy party, has been criticized by the international community for failing to speak up in defense of the Rohingya. Around 600,000 of the stateless minority have fled to Bangladesh since late August. Suu Kyi “is now in Sittwe and will go to Maungdaw and Buthidaung too. It will be a day trip,” government spokesman Zaw Htay said, mentioning two of the epicenters of the violence.