Manila, Nov 14 (AFP) UN chief Antonio Guterres urgedMyanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to allow Rohingya refugees inBangladesh to return, when they met today at a summit in thePhilippines, his office said.
The meeting added to global pressure on Suu Kyi to takeaction to end the crisis for the Muslim minority, with USSecretary of State Rex Tillerson due Tuesday also to holdtalks with her in Manila then travel to Myanmar.
"The Secretary-General highlighted that strengthenedefforts to ensure humanitarian access, safe, dignified,voluntary and sustained returns, as well as truereconciliation between communities, would be essential," a UNstatement said, summarising comments to Suu Kyi.
More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouringBangladesh in two and a half months.
The crisis erupted after Rohingya rebels attacked policeposts in Myanmar's Rakhine state, triggering a militarycrackdown that saw hundreds of villages reduced to ashes andsparked a massive exodus.
Authorities have blocked independent access to northernRakhine.
But journalists and UN officials have collected reams oftestimony from Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh describingsoldiers and Buddhist mobs committing murder, rape and massarson.
Following its first official investigation into thecrisis, the army published a report this week in which itcleared itself of any abuses.
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, a former democracy activist, hasbeen lambasted by rights groups for failing to speak up forthe Rohingya or condemn festering anti-Muslim sentiment in thecountry.
But she lacks control over the powerful military, whichruled the country for decades until her party came to powerfollowing 2015 elections.
The United States has been careful not to place blame onher and has focused instead on the army's role in theconflict.
Guterres and Suu Kyi met in the early hours of Tuesdaymorning, according to his office.
In a summit on Monday night with leaders of the 10-memberAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is amember, Guterres also voiced concern about the Rohingya.
He said the displacement of hundreds of thousands ofRohingya was a "worrying escalation in a protracted tragedy,"according to the UN statement.
He described the situation as a potential source ofinstability in the region, as well as radicalisation. (AFP)AJR.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.