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Julie Bishop says Myanmar landmines in Rohingya path would breach international law Aung San Suu Kyi to miss UN general assembly amid criticism over Rohingya crisis
(about 9 hours later)
Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, says it would be a gross breach of international law if Myanmar’s military planted landmines in the path of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in western Rakhine state. Aung San Suu Kyi will not attend the UN general assembly later this month, her spokesman has said, as the Nobel laureate faces a barrage of criticism over her failure to speak up for Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
Bishop was responding to reports that civilians had been injured while crossing the border with Bangladesh, where 300,000 Rohingya have fled in the past two weeks. A crackdown by Myanmar’s army, launched in response to Rohingya militant attacks on 25 August, has sent some 370,000 Rohingya refugees scrambling across the border to Bangladesh in less than three weeks.
“In relation to the report on landmines, this would be a gross violation of international law if this is in fact occurring,” Australia’s foreign minister told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday. The violence has incubated a humanitarian crisis on both sides of the border.
“I note that Myanmar is not a signatory to the mine ban treaty but it would be a gross breach of international law”. When Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to parliament in 2012 there were high hopes that the Nobel peace prize winner would help heal Myanmar's entrenched ethnic divides.  
Bishop said Australia was focusing efforts on providing humanitarian assistance through agencies of the United Nations. Some defenders at the time tried to argue that she was gagged by temporary political concerns because she had to hold on to the votes of nationalist Buddhists. However, her NLD party won a landslide victory in elections in 2015 and yet she remained conspicuously silent.
She said the government had provided funding to the Red Cross in Myanmar and also Bangladesh, where many of the refugees and those seeking humanitarian assistance are heading. She has defended the government that she is part of in response to the recent wave of violence, sparking further widespread condemnation.
Asked whether Australia would take refugees to ease the crisis, Bishop pointed to the humanitarian assistance being provided by the Turnbull government. Her exact motivations remain opaque but the only thing she obviously stands to lose by speaking out is the support of the military power brokers who still ultimately control Myanmar. The only thing she could obviously hope to gain by her silence is more power and influence.
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Bangladesh is struggling to provide relief for exhausted and hungry refugees – some 60% of whom are children – while nearly 30,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists as well as Hindus have been displaced inside Myanmar.
The UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, accused Myanmar of waging a “systematic attack” on the Muslim Rohingya minority and warned that “ethnic cleansing” seemed to be under way.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s first civilian leader in decades, does not control the actions of the powerful military, which ran the country for 50 years before allowing free elections in 2015.
There is also scant sympathy among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority for the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim group branded “Bengalis” – shorthand for illegal immigrants.
But outside of her country, her reputation as a rights defender is in ruins over the Rohingya crisis.
Rohingya refugees have told chilling accounts of soldiers firing on civilians and razing entire villages in northern Rakhine state with the help of Buddhist mobs.
The army denies the allegations while Aung San Suu Kyi has also played down claims of atrocities, instead blaming “a huge iceberg of misinformation” for complicating the conflict.
“The state counsellor won’t attend the meeting of the United Nations general assembly,” said government spokesman Zaw Htay on Wednesday, using her formal title.
The spokesman did not explain the decision but said one of the country’s vice-presidents, Henry Van Thio, would attend the summit, which runs through next week.
Responding to reports that Myanmar’s military has planted landmines in the path of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence, Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said it would be a “gross violation of international law” if confirmed.
Her comments came amid a growing chorus of international pressure on the south-east Asian nation, with the US calling for an end to violence and Bangladesh demanding refugees be allowed to return home.
The UN security council is due to meet on Wednesday behind closed doors for the second time during the recent crisis, although China has backed its southern neighbour and trade partner, making swift action appear unlikely.
Bishop said Australia was focusing efforts on providing humanitarian assistance through UN agencies.
She said the government had provided funding to the Red Cross in Myanmar and also Bangladesh, where many of the refugees and those seeking humanitarian assistance were heading.
Asked whether Australia would take in refugees to ease the crisis, Bishop pointed to the humanitarian assistance being provided by the Turnbull government.
Accounts from refugees crossing the border into Bangladesh have mainly detailed violence such as shooting by soldiers and the burning of villages.Accounts from refugees crossing the border into Bangladesh have mainly detailed violence such as shooting by soldiers and the burning of villages.
But reporters from Associated Press on the Bangladesh side of the border said they had seen an elderly woman with devastating leg wounds: one leg half-blown off and the other also badly injured. Relatives said she had stepped on a landmine.But reporters from Associated Press on the Bangladesh side of the border said they had seen an elderly woman with devastating leg wounds: one leg half-blown off and the other also badly injured. Relatives said she had stepped on a landmine.
The White House issued a statement calling for “Burmese security authorities to respect the rule of law, stop the violence, and end the displacement of civilians from all communities”.
US senator John McCain said he would seek to “remove military cooperation” with Myanmar by changing the language of an upcoming bill authorising increased US defence spending. Senate lawmakers are scheduled to vote on the bill this week.
Given human rights abuses against Rohingya, I will seek to remove military cooperation w/ #Burma from #FY18NDAA https://t.co/n1cyCx9M6s
At the European parliament, British MEP Amjad Bashir called for international sanctions against Myanmar and said he will present an “urgent resolution” to the parliament on Thursday.
The Conservative MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber said the resolution would seek an “immediate halt to any trade and investment discussions between Europe and Myanmar”, including a trade mission scheduled for next week.
“The world is waking up to the horrors being visited upon the Rohingyas. This is ethnic cleansing in the 21st century,” he said.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.