Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi Cancels U.N. Trip Amid Rohingya Crisis

China endorses Myanmar’s offensive against Rohingya Muslim insurgents, Myanmar state media said on Thursday, as the United Nations secretary-general described the operation, forcing almost 400,000 people to flee to Bangladesh, as “ethnic cleansing”.

Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi is being criticized for engaging in the kind of repression she spent decades fighting. And Aung San Suu Kyi, however angry we may be at her right now, does not have the constitutional authority over the military that a civilian leader should have.

“Because Myanmar has refused access to human rights investigators the current situation can not yet be fully assessed, but the situation seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, he told the United Nations forum.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday condemned the crisis in Myanmar as a “shocking catastrophe”, as the European Parliament demanded an immediate end to violence against Rohingya Muslims.

While the Trump administration has been less active on Myanmar than the Obama administration, the current wave of global condemnation has begun to galvanize a response in Washington, where Suu Kyi has always been idolized for her peaceful struggle for democracy.

Secretary-General Guterres said he has spoken to Suu Kyi several times about the “dramatic tragedy”, but not since the announcement that she is skipping the General Assembly.

The fresh exodus of Rohingya has generated a humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh, where existing UN-run refugee camps are already packed with Rohingya who fled from previous waves of Myanmar violence. “Not a single one of them has ever engaged in any terrorist activity”, the petition said. She has lost all credibility by not standing up against persecution of the Muslim minority by the Buddhist majority.

The latest eruption of violence in Rakhine has killed more than 1,000 people, according to the UN.

Thiri Thant Mon, managing director at Yangon-based investment advisory firm Sandanila, said many in Myanmar think the global community has wrongly directed its attention to the Rohingya fleeing Myanmar, instead of the suffering of Rakhine Buddhists in one of its poorest states.

Over 300,000 Rohingyas have fled since a militant group associated with the Rohingya attacked a series of military outposts on Auguest 25. She has been sharply criticized, especially as a former Nobel peace prize victor, for not dealing with the Rohingya crisis. “This week’s unanimous adoption of a new resolution sends a clear message that the DPRK must comply fully with its worldwide obligations”, Mr. Guterres said referring to new sanctions, which among other measures, limit the imports of crude oil and oil products, ban textile exports, and prevent new visas for DPRK workers overseas.

In a statement the government of Bangladesh said it was expanding the camp for the Rohingya refugees and was doing all it could to help, “but it is nearing its limits”.

While “the true number of fires and extent of property destruction is likely to be much higher”, Amnesty also says that satellite images form mixed ethnic areas show that non-Rohingya areas “appear to have been left untouched”.

Trudeau stressed Suu Kyi’s importance as a moral and political leader in resolving the crisis that has sent thousands of Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh, the Canadian Prime Minister Office said on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The nationalists have taken up common cause with local Rakhine Buddhists in rallying against the Rohingya and agree with the Rakhine’s claims that the Rohingya are recent Bengali immigrants who deserve no ethnic rights.