'Myanmar will avoid using term Rohingya'

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has told the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights that the government will avoid using the term "Rohingya" to describe a persecuted Muslim minority in the country's northwest, an official told Reuters yesterday.

Members of the 1.1 million group, who identify themselves by the term "Rohingya" and live in apartheid-like conditions, are seen by many Myanmar Buddhists as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The term is a divisive issue.

The UN human rights investigator, Yanghee Lee, met Suu Kyi in the capital Naypyitaw on her first trip to Myanmar since the Nobel Peace Prize winner took power in April.

"At their meeting here this morning, our Foreign Minister Daw Aung San Suu Kyi explained our stance on this issue that the controversial terms should be avoided," said Aung Lin, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Suu Kyi said during a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry last month that the country needed "space" to deal with the Rohingya issue and cautioned against the use of "emotive terms", that she said were making the situation more difficult.

The previous military-linked government of former junta general Thein Sein referred to the group as "Bengalis", implying they were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, the United Nations warned yesterday widespread and ongoing violations against Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority, including denial of citizenship, forced labour and sexual violence, could amount to crimes against humanity.

In a report on the human rights situation for minorities in Myanmar, the UN human rights office said it had found "a pattern of gross violations against the Rohingya... (which) suggest a widespread or systematic attack... in turn giving rise to the possible commission of crimes against humanity if established in a court of law."