In an exclusive interview with the BBC, the Nobel peace prize winner acknowledged problems in Rakhine state, where most Rohingya people live. But she said ethnic cleansing was "too strong" a term to use.
Instead, Myanmar's de-facto leader said the country would welcome any returning Rohingya with open arms. "I don't think there is ethnic cleansing going on. I think ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is happening," she told the BBC's special correspondent Fergal Keane.
Ms Suu Kyi added: "I think there is a lot of hostility there - it is Muslims killing Muslims as well, if they think they are co-operating with the authorities, "It is not just a matter of ethnic cleansing as you put it - it is a matter of people on different sides of the divide, and this divide we are trying to close up."
Ms Suu Kyi said she had no idea why the October attacks were carried out, but speculated it may have been an effort to derail attempts to negotiate peace between the Myanmar state and the country's various armed ethnic insurgent groups. She also denied the army had free rein to do whatever it liked. "They are not free to rape, pillage and torture," she said. "They are free to go in and fight. That is in the constitution. Military matters are to be left to the army."
However, she did acknowledge that regaining control of the military was something the government still hoped to do. Under the current constitution, the military operates independently of the governing party.
BBC
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