\n Malaysia's top diplomat turned the screws on Aung San Suu Kyi at emergency talks in Myanmar on Monday, warning that an army crackdown on the Rohingya minority could spark a regional migrant crisis.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 27,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled northwestern Myanmar for Bangladesh since the start of November to escape a military counter-insurgency operation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Myanmar's army says it is hunting militants behind deadly raids on police posts in October.\n<\/p>\n
\n But Rohingya survivors have described rape, murder and arson at the hands of soldiers -- accounts that have raised global alarm and galvanised protests around Southeast Asia.\n<\/p>\n
\n The exodus has sparked a rare dispute within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the 10-member bloc that prides itself on consensus diplomacy and non-interference.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Monday ASEAN foreign ministers held talks in Yangon on the crisis.\n<\/p>\n
\n Muslim-majority Malaysia called for an independent ASEAN-led investigation into the allegations of army abuse.\n<\/p>\n
\n Foreign Minister Anifah Aman also urged full humanitarian access to the locked-down area, where more than 130,000 people have been without aid for two months.\n<\/p>\n
\n He warned the crackdown could trigger a repeat of last year's boat crisis, when thousands of starving Rohingya were abandoned at sea by traffickers as they tried to flee southwards to Malaysia.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We believe that the situation is now of a regional concern and should be resolved together,\" he told the meeting, according to a statement from Kuala Lumpur.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Myanmar must do more in trying to address the root causes of this problem.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n On Monday Amnesty International joined the condemnation, saying the army's \"widespread and systematic attack on a civilian population\" may amount to crimes against humanity.\n<\/p>\n
\n Myanmar's more than one million Rohingya have been described as among the most persecuted people in the world.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 120,000 were driven by bloody sectarian clashes in 2012 into displacement camps, where they live in conditions many have likened to apartheid.\n<\/p>\n
\n - New wave of anger -\n<\/p>\n
\n The latest crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state has generated a fresh wave of public anger, particularly in Malaysia, where tens of thousands of Rohingya eke out lives as undocumented workers.\n<\/p>\n
\n This month Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak accused Suu Kyi of allowing \"genocide\" on her watch -- an unusually strong rebuke by one ASEAN state of another.\n<\/p>\n
\n Myanmar, which has vehemently denied the allegations of abuse, angrily summoned Malaysia's ambassador and banned its workers from going to the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n Suu Kyi also held talks with mainly Muslim Indonesia this month after cancelling a visit following protests and an attempted attack on the Myanmar embassy.\n<\/p>\n
\n At Monday's talks ministers warned of the risk of a \"spillover effect on Myanmar's neighbours in terms of security and stability\" from the Rakhine violence, a diplomat told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ministers also took aim at Nobel laureate Suu Kyi for not doing more to rein in the military, which still has a quarter of parliament seats and controls key levers of power in her elected government.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Her hands are tied because of the military, but she has to shoulder her responsibility as a leader of Myanmar,\" said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.\n<\/p>\n
\n Suu Kyi has pleaded for time and international understanding over the incendiary issue.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Rohingya are reviled in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, denied citizenship and widely tagged as \"Bengalis\" -- or illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a statement after Monday's meeting Suu Kyi said talks were \"candid and transparent\" but also \"emphasised the importance of strengthening ASEAN unity and resolving the differences between ASEAN family members\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Myanmar has faced a cascade of criticism from outside the region over the Rohingya crisis, including from the United States and the United Nations.\n<\/p>\n
\n Last week, UN rights commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein criticised the government's \"callous\" handling of the crisis, describing it as \"a lesson in how to make a bad situation worse\".<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malaysia's top diplomat turned the screws on Aung San Suu Kyi at emergency talks in Myanmar on Monday, warning that an army crackdown on the Rohingya minority could spark a regional migrant crisis. More than 27,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled northwestern Myanmar for Bangladesh since the start of November to escape a military counter-insurgency operation. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-31215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n