Suu Kyi should have resigned: UN human rights chief

The outgoing UN human rights chief says the Myanmar de-facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, should have resigned over Myanmar military’s violent campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority last year, reports BBC.

The Nobel Peace prize winner’s attempts to excuse it were “deeply regrettable”, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, the outgoing UN human rights chief, said in an interview with BBC.

“She was in a position to do something,” Hussein, further told BBC, “She could have stayed quiet - or even better, she could have resigned.”

“There was no need for her to be the spokesperson of the Burmese military,” he said in the interview with the BBC's Imogen Foulkes. "She could have stayed quiet - or even better, she could have resigned."

“She could have said look, you know, I am prepared to be the nominal leader of the country but not under these conditions,” Hussein added.

Hussein’s comments come a day after the release of an independent United Nations investigation into human rights abuses carried out against Rohingyas.

The UN has found that the Myanmar military had planned the Rohingya genocide long before the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked the country's security personnel, a justification put forward by Myanmar for the violent crackdown on the ethnic minority.

UN Secretary General António Guterres on Tuesday called for ensuring accountability for the “horrendous persecution” of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and said there could be no excuse for delaying the search for dignified solutions that would allow Rohingyas to return home in safety and dignity.