US diplomat resigns from Suu Kyi panel on Rohingya crisis

Bill Richardson. -AP pix

YANGON: US diplomat Bill Richardson resigned early Thursday from an Aung San Suu Kyi-appointed panel set up to ease communal tensions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and hit out at the Nobel Laureate for an “absence of moral leadership” over the crisis.

In a statement that pulled few punches, the former US governor and one-time Suu Kyi ally said he could not in “good conscience” serve on the committee that would likely serve only to “whitewash” the causes behind the Rohingya exodus.