BANGKOK -- Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has cancelled plans to attend the UN General Assembly, with her country drawing international criticism for violence that has driven at least 370,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims from the country in less than three weeks.
Presidential office spokesman Zaw Htay said Wednesday that Suu Kyi will skip the assembly, which opened Tuesday, to address domestic security issues. Suu Kyi is not Myanmar’s president -- her official titles are state counsellor and foreign minister -- but she effectively serves as leader of the Southeast Asian nation.
Attacks by an insurgent Rohingya group on police outposts Aug. 25 have set off a wave of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, with hundreds dead and thousands of homes burned -- mostly Rohingya in both cases.
