Myanmar forms new committee on Rohingya

BANGKOK —

FILE: Flag of Myanmar/Burma (Open Clip Art, CC0)

The Latest on violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and the flood of ethnic Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh (all times local): 1 p.m.

Myanmar’s president office says a committee has been formed to implement recommendations for improving the security and livelihoods of its ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority.

The recommendations were made in a report last month by a commission led by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The president’s office said in a statement Tuesday that the new 15-member Implementation Committee of Rakhine Advisory Committee would work on improving security, economic development and social affairs in Rohingya areas, as well as maintaining the sustainability of ethnic villages and removing camps for the displaced.

It said the committee would also work to speed progress on verifying the Rohingya under the country’s citizenship laws so they can be recognized as citizens.

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12:20 p.m.

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has cancelled plans to attend the U.N. 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.