The outgoing UN human rights chief says Myanmar’s de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi should have resigned over the military’s violent campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority last year.
Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein told the BBC the Nobel Peace prize winner’s attempts to excuse it were “deeply regrettable”.
His comments come after a UN report said Myanmar’s military leaders should be prosecuted for possible genocide.
Myanmar rejected this, saying it had no tolerance for human rights violations.
The army of the Buddhist-majority nation – which has been accused of systematic ethnic cleansing – has previously cleared itself of wrongdoing.
The UN report, published on Monday, blamed Ms Suu Kyi, a long-term leader of the pro-democracy movement, for failing to prevent the violence.
“She was in a position to do something,” Mr Hussein said in an interview with the BBC’s Imogen Foulkes. “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. She didn’t have to say this was an iceberg of misinformation. These were fabrications,” he said.
“She could have said look, you know, I am prepared to be the nominal leader of the country but not under these conditions.”
On Wednesday, the Nobel committee said Ms Suu Kyi could not be stripped of the Peace Prize she was awarded in 1991.
BBC
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