Bangkok: Myanmar's de factor leader Aung San Suu Kyi refused on Tuesday to criticise her country's security forces, which the United Nations has accused of the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims.
Facing a barrage of international criticism over the Rohingya crisis, Ms Suu Kyi condemned all human rights violations in the country's strife-torn Rakhine state and said anyone responsible would face the law.
But the 72-year-old Nobel laureate claimed she did not know why more than 400,000 Rohingya had fled to Bangladesh, saying there were "allegations and counter allegations".
"We would like to find out why this is happening," she told an audience of foreign dignitaries, officials and journalists in the capital Naypyitaw.
"We would like to talk to those who have fled as well as those who have stayed," she said.
Ms Suu Kyi's government has refused to allow a team of UN investigators to travel to Rakhine, Myanmar's poorest state and home to 1.1 million persecuted Rohingya.
She claimed a "great majority" of Muslims in Rakhine did not flee and more than 50 per cent of villages in the state remained intact.
Ms Suu Kyi said her country was prepared to start a "verification" process" for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled Rakhine in the past three weeks.
But it was unclear how many would be able to return.
Rohingya are denied citizenship and basic rights in Myanmar, although they have lived in the country for centuries.
In the speech that fell short of offering a solution to the crisis, Ms Suu Kyi appealed for international understanding but said her country did not fear international scrutiny.
"We are a young and fragile democracy facing many problems," she said, adding "we have never been soft on human rights in this country".
Ms Suu Kyi said she felt "deeply" for the suffering of "all people" caught up in the conflict.
She also reached out to her critics, includingfellow Nobel laureates.
"Hate and fear are the main scourges of our world," she said.
"We don't want Myanmar to be a nation divided by religious beliefs or ethnicity???we all have the right to our diverse ethnicity."
Long-simmering tensions between more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims, security forces and Buddhists erupted in late August, after attacks on about 30 police posts by Muslim insurgents.
Survivors and human rights groups say a "scorched earth" offensive by Myanmar's security forces against the Rohingya has included the slaughter of children, extra-judicial killings, widespread torching of villages and rapes.
Ms Suu Kyi last week cancelled plans to travel to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, where world leaders are scheduled to discuss the crisis on Wednesday.
When Ms Suu Kyi spoke at the assembly last year she received a rapturous reception.
Last week the 15-member UN Security Council, which includes China, which has close ties to Myanmar's military, issued its lowest-order form of statement to express concern about "excessive violence during security operations" in Rakhine.
But Australia, the United States, Britain and other Western nations are expected to push for tougher UN action on Wednesday over the violence that rivals ethnic cleansing campaigns in Sudan in the early 2000s and Kosovo in the 1990s.
Speaking in New York, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she wanted to hear Ms Suu Kyi offer a solution "to what is a tragedy of enormous proportions".
She emphasised the need for Myanmar to allow UN and international aid agencies to deliver support to distressed people in Rakhine, and allow Rohingya to return home.
