The world is shocked by the scale of the horrors unfolding in a country it was thought was coming in from the cold. When the Nobel Peace Prize winner became its leader there was hope everywhere that Aung San Suu Chi would herald a new beginning for her country. The brutality of the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, over half a million of whom have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, is stunning and raises multiple questions about her integrity as democratic champion of human rights.
A junior Foreign Office Minister has said, following a visit to her, that she assured him that the Rohingya would be allowed to return. Really? To What? All their villages have been burned to ashes and many family members killed. As the UN has declared, this is a terrible humanitarian emergency. Its resolution will require a good deal more than the worthless assurances of this discredited icon.