US diplomat Bill Richardson was accused on Thursday of a "personal attack" on Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi after an excoriating take down of the former darling of the global rights community as he resigned from a panel on the Rohingya crisis. Richardson, a one-time Suu Kyi ally, was one of five foreign members hand picked by Myanmar's civilian leader to serve on the committee. But after a three-day visit to Myanmar, Richardson struck out at his hosts, saying he could not in "good conscience" sit on a panel he feared would only "whitewash" the causes of the Rohingya crisis. He lambasted Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi for an "absence of moral l eadership" over Rakhine and described her "furious response" to his calls to free two Reuters journalists arrested while covering the crisis. A Myanmar government spokesman hit back on Thursday, accusing the former New Mexico Governor Richardson of over-stepping th...
WASHINGTON: After Turkey assaulted a relatively peaceful Kurdish enclave of northern Syria, regional leaders fear the world will abandon them even though they provided the ground troops who beat the militant Islamic State group. For the past four days, Turkish troops and allied Arab Islamist fighters have been battling their way into Syria’s Afrin canton, which is defended by the American-backed Kurdish YPG militia. US leaders, including President Donald Trump, have appealed for restraint, but appear to have little influence over their Nato ally when it comes to its battle against the Kurds. Now the Kurds, whose unofficial national motto admits they have “no friends but the mountains”, fear they will be the forgotten victims as Turkey, Russia and the United States manoeuvre for influence. And this despite providing the backbone of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who gifted Trump his first military victory — the fall of the IS capital, Raqa. Sinam ...