Suu Kyi cancels rare public appearance in Australia citing ill health

Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has cancelled a rare public appearance she was scheduled to make tomorrow in Sydney, Australia, shortly after meeting with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today.

Suu Kyi was scheduled to give a speech at Sydney’s Lowy Institute, an international policy think-tank, on March 20, where she was also expected to take questions from the audience. An announcement released today by the Lowy Institute said Suu Kyi had been forced to cancel the appearance because she was “not feeling well.”

Myanmar’s state counsellor arrived in Sydney last week to attend a special ASEAN summit – the first of its kind to be held in Australia. Her presence has been met with public protests against Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas, nearly 700,000 of whom have been displaced to Bangladesh since last August.

A group of five Australian lawyers even sought to prosecute Suu Kyi for her country’s alleged crimes against humanity, but the application was rejected by Australia’s attorney general on the grounds that the state counsellor enjoys “complete immunity” under “customary international law.”

The Myanmar government maintains that allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide are without evidence, despite the publication of several reports by the UN and rights groups documenting rapes, killings, and the destruction of Rohingya villages by Myanmar security forces and government agencies.

The Myanmar military has even been forced to admit to atrocities, such as in the case of the Inn Din massacre, which two Reuters reporters are currently on trial for uncovering.

Turnbull told reporters on Sunday that Suu Kyi gave a lengthy speech about the Rohingya crisis during the ASEAN summit in which she requested humanitarian assistance and capacity building from her counterparts. The request was brought up during the prime minister’s conversation with the state counsellor today, though it is unclear whether any deal was struck.