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UN Envoys in Myanmar for Talks With Aung San Suu Kyi


Security Council President Gustavo Meza-Cuadra (2nd-L) walks with other members of a U.N. Security Council team upon arrival at Naypyitaw International Airport in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, April 30, 2018.
Security Council President Gustavo Meza-Cuadra (2nd-L) walks with other members of a U.N. Security Council team upon arrival at Naypyitaw International Airport in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, April 30, 2018.

Members of a U.N. delegation probing human rights abuses in Myanmar met with the country's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, after having visited Bangladesh, where 700,000 refugees have fled violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The 15-member U.N. Security Council team met Monday with Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as military commander Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw.

Rakhine stat, Myanmar
Rakhine stat, Myanmar

The U.N. delegation is to travel to the troubled Rakhine state Tuesday to see the aftermath of an army crackdown that began last August, as well as the country's preparations to repatriate refugees, most of them of the Rohingya minority.

Rohingya have been denied citizenship, even though many of their families have lived in Myanmar for generations.The refugees fled violence in Rakhine state the United Nations has called "textbook ethnic cleansing".

Myanmar's government agreed to allow the U.N. delegates to visit Rakhine, after having previously denied a fact-finding committee a visit. Journalists and humanitarians have been barred from access to the state for months.

The U.N. delegation arrived Saturday in Bangladesh for a first-hand look at the situation of the Rohingya refugees, visiting Cox's Bazar where large makeshift refugee camps have been set up near the border with Myanmar.

VOA's Burmese Service contributed to this report .

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