Burma's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has lashed out at “misinformation” from “terrorists” amid reports that the Burmese army has laced the country’s border with Bangladesh with landmines to target Rohingya refugees fleeing a violent military crackdown in the northwest Rakhine state.

Nearly 126,000 civilians from the Rohingya Muslim minority have now taken refuge in the squalor of overburdened relief camps in Bangladesh to escape a two-week “clearance operation” by the Burma security forces that has razed villages to the ground and left hundreds dead.

UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, on Tuesday warned of the risk of ethnic cleansing and regional destabilisation, expressing fears that the violence could spiral into a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

But despite facing a barrage of international criticism, particularly from outraged Muslim countries, former Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has made no mention of the desperate plight of Rohingya civilians.