Roundup: Aung San Suu Kyi at odds with EU over int'l investigation into Rakhine situation

Visiting Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday snubbed a UN resolution backed by the European Union (EU) recommending an international investigation into the situation of Myanmar's northern Rakhine state.

She said that the resolution was not "in keeping with what is actually happening on the ground."

"If we think that the recommendations are in keeping with the real needs of the region, we would be happy to accept them," she told reporters following a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels.

Aung San Suu Kyi reaffirmed that her country will not accept "those recommendations which will divide further the two communities in Rakhine," referring to the chronic tension between the state's Buddhist majority and Muslim minority.

"Because it will not help us to resolve the problems that are arising all the time," she noted.

Speaking to reporters alongside Aung San Suu Kyi, Mogherini conceded that the resolution is "one of the very few issues of disagreement" between Myanmar and the EU, but she argued that dispatching an independent international fact-finding mission "can contribute towards establishing the facts for the past."

Downplaying the bickering, Mogherini underscored that the two sides agreed on the need to "focus on the future and the implementation of the recommendations included in the (former UN Secretary General Kofi )Annan report assessments."

The Myanmar government's Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, chaired by Annan, on March 16 submitted an interim report and recommendations on the regional issue to the government.

The commission, formed in August, proposed a series of measures to address the situation in Rakhine, including an unimpeded access for humanitarian actors and journalists to the affected areas.

The commission also called for an independent and impartial investigation into the allegations of crimes committed since Oct. 9.

The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on March 24 adopted an EU-tabled resolution to send a fact-finding mission to Myanmar to investigate alleged human rights abuse by security forces against Muslims in the northern Rakhine state.

A number of HRC member countries have dissociated themselves from the resolution or voiced their opposition to the establishment of such a mission.

In response to the armed attacks on police border outposts in October and subsequent allegations of human rights abuses, the Myanmar government formed an investigation commission, led by Vice President U Myint Swe, to look into the cause of those incidents and allegations. Endi