Aung San Suu Kyi moves to end sectarian violence in Myanmar

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi will lead a fresh effort to bring peace and development to the impoverished, troubled Rakhine state in Myanmar, where violence between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims has cast a shadow over democratic reform.

Sectarian violence in Rakhine State in 2012 killed more than 160 and 140,000 people were displaced, and the two communities have remained segregated since then.

Ms Suu Kyi holds the rank of state counsellor in Myanmar (formerly Burma), where she is considered de facto leader after a landslide election win in November but is barred from holding the presidency because of rules imposed by the military junta, which still wields considerable power in the southeast Asian nation.

“In order to ensure successful implementation of works of the central committee on implementation of peace, stability and development of Rakhine state, working committees on implementation of peace, stability and development of Rakhine state have been formed,” the president’s office said in a statement online. The committee is made up of 27 officials, including all government cabinet members as well as Rakhine state government representatives.

"For now, I cannot talk in detail about the committee's operations, but can say it has started work," U Zaw Htay, the president's office spokesman, told the "Myanmar Times", adding that the central committee would go to Rakhine state "very soon".

“The committee must go on a field trip to observe the situation on the ground and we will publicise more about it then,” he said, without mentioning specific dates or indicating whether Ms Suu Kyi would be part of the delegation.

Ms Suu Kyi, who is also foreign minister, flagged the initiative last week in a meeting with US secretary of state John Kerry. She said the government was working for a solution that will allow the Rohingya Muslim minority group to live peacefully and securely outside the camps.

In the run-up to Ms Suu Kyi’s appointment to a leadership role in the government, there was fresh optimism that tense relations between Myanmar’s ethnic groups might improve.

This was boosted by news from the United Nations, which said that about 25,000 members of the Rohingya have left camps for displaced people in the west Myanmar and returned to the homes they fled after the violence that erupted between them and local Buddhists in 2012.

Thousands of Rohingyas have fled the province by boat to neighbouring south and southeast Asian countries. In May last year, 30 bodies were found in graves, including Rohingya refugees, near a human-trafficking camp close to the Thai-Malaysian border, as well as in Malaysia itself.

The committee will also work on resettling displaced persons and social development, as well as co-ordinating the activities of UN agencies and international non-governmental organisations, the Irrawaddy website reported.