Aung San Suu Kyi. Photo: Bloomberg
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has confirmed plans to visit Australia amid growing international concern that sectarian violence could undermine progress in the country's return to democratic rule.
Ms Suu Kyi will attend a United Nations AIDS conference in Sydney in early December in her role as the UN's global advocate opposing discrimination against victims of the disease. She is also expected to visit Melbourne and one or two other cities. Several universities are proposing to award honorary doctorates in recognition of her role in helping bring an end to half a century of military rule in Myanmar.
''I am waiting to confirm the dates, but I am looking forward to coming to Australia,'' Ms Suu Kyi said before a meeting last week with Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr in the Myanmar capital, Naypyidaw.
''I would like to come when the weather is fine and it would be nice to have some time to relax there if possible,'' she said
Freed in late 2010 after years under house arrest, the Nobel laureate announced last month that she would seek to become president of Myanmar after national elections scheduled for 2015.
During a two-day visit to Myanmar, Senator Carr warned that sectarian violence between the country's Buddhist majority and Muslim minority could threaten the progress of political and economic reform.
The violence has claimed about 200 Muslim lives over the past year and forced about 150,000 people, most of them Muslims, from their homes.
''I perceive the danger of Myanmar losing a lot of the lustre of their transition to democracy as a result of the sectarian tensions … and the widespread view that racial discrimination is allowed to be directed at a minority,'' Senator Carr told Fairfax Media. ''There needs to be an authentic reconciliation across religious and ethnic divides.''
He said he had raised his concerns in meetings with a range of senior leaders, including President Thein Sein and Ms Suu Kyi, who has faced criticism for not speaking out more forcefully against extremist Buddhist elements.
Australian officials are concerned the conflict, if not brought under control, could open a new pipeline of asylum seekers to Australia. About 1200 members of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority have reached Australia by boat in the past year.
Senator Carr's warning coincided with a call last week by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for the Myanmar government to resolve the question of citizenship for about 1 million stateless Rohingya.
Mr Ban warned of a ''dangerous polarisation'' between Buddhists and Muslims, and said government promises to protect lives and punish perpetrators needed to be ''translated into concrete action''.
Last week, a Myanmar court sentenced seven Buddhists to up to 15 years' jail for their role in a massacre at an Islamic boarding school earlier this year in which dozens of students and teachers were killed.
