In rare comments on Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya Muslims, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged caution on granting citizenship to minorities, saying the sensitive issue must be addressed "very, very carefully."
The Myanmar government is reviewing citizenship status and "should go about it very quickly and very transparently and then decide what the next steps in the process should be," she told The Washington Post.
But in an interview published online late yesterday, Suu Kyi dodged a direct question on whether the Rohingya -- who have triggered international outcry as they flee the country on rickety boats in their thousands -- should be given citizenship.
"The protection of rights of minorities is an issue which should be addressed very, very carefully and as quickly and effectively as possible, and I'm not sure the government is doing enough about it," she said.
"It is such a sensitive issue, and there are so many racial and religious groups, that whatever we do to one group may have an impact on other groups as well," she stressed.
"So this is an extremely complex situation, and not something that can be resolved overnight."
The plight of the Rohingya, one of the world's most persecuted minorities, has worsened dramatically since 2012, when communal bloodshed left scores dead and some 140,000 people confined in miserable camps in Rakhine state.
The violence triggered a wave of deadly anti-Muslim unrest in Myanmar and coincided with rising Buddhist nationalism that has further entrenched animosity toward the minority widely viewed as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
In recent months, images of starving, desperate migrants hauled from vessels to Southeast Asian shores have spurred calls for immediate humanitarian action.
But pro-democracy icon and Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi, who became a beacon of hope during decades of house arrest under the military junta, has been accused of failing to speak up for the country's powerless as she campaigns for elections due in November.
"We have many minorities in this country, and I'm always talking up for the right of minorities and peace and harmony, and for equality," she told the Post, speaking after a landmark visit to China.
And she insisted in Rakhine "the government has not done enough to lessen the tension and to remove sources of the conflict."
Buddhist hardliners want the estimated 1.3 million Rohingya expelled from Myanmar.
