Myanmar's de-facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, spoke out Wednesday against "terrorists" for spreading "a huge iceberg of misinformation" about the Rohingya crisis.

It marks the first time Suu Kyi has commented on the violence and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Rakhine state, although she has repeatedly refused to denounce Myanmar's military forces, despite reports of troops carrying out targeted arson attacks and mass killings.

Read more: The Rohingya in Myanmar: what you need to know

In a statement posted on Facebook, Suu Kyi's office said that the government had "already started defending all the people in Rakhine in the best way possible." The state counsellor's office also warned that misinformation would mar relations with other countries.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh Seeking refuge A series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine State triggered a crackdown by Myanmar forces that has sent a stream of Rohingya villagers fleeing to Bangladesh. About 400 people have been killed in the clashes in Buddist-majority Myanmar.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh Mass evacuation A Rohingya man passes a child though a barbed wire border fence on the border with Bangladesh. Myanmar accused the Rohingya insurgents of torching seven villages, one outpost, and two parts of Maungdaw town.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh Buddhist refugees on their way south The crackdown by Myanmar forces also sparked a mass evacuation of thousands of Buddhist residents of the area. Tension has long been high between the Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists, leading to bloody rioting in 2012. Rakhine Buddhists, feeling unsafe after the upsurge in fighting, are moving south to the state's capital, Sittwe, where Buddhists are a majority and have greater security.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh No entry Bangladeshi border guards block people from crossing. Thousands of Rohingyas have sought to flee the fighting to Bangladesh, with nearly 30,000 crossing over. Bangladesh, which is already host to more than 400,000 Rohingya said it will not accept any more refugees, despite an appeal by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for Dhaka to allow Rohingya to seek safety.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh Humanitarian crisis An aid worker with an international agency in Bangladesh reports: "What we're seeing is that many Rohingya people are sick. This is because they got stuck in the border before they could enter. It's mostly women and children." The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh Not welcome in Bangladesh A group of Rohingya refugees takes shelter at the Kutuupalang makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. Bangladesh's unwillingness to host more refugees became apparent in the government's plan to relocate Rohingyas to a remote island that is mostly flooded during the monsoon season.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh Stranded in no man's land Rohingya children make their way through water as they try to come to the Bangladesh side from no man's land. Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees are believed to be stuck at the border to Bangladesh. Author: Nadine Berghausen



The remarks came after Suu Kyi spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the phone Tuesday. She criticized Turkey's deputy prime minister for posting images on social media of the alleged killings of Rohingya Muslims, which later turned out not to be from Myanmar.

"She said, that kind of fake information which was inflicted on the Deputy Prime Minister was simply the tip of a huge iceberg of misinformation calculated to create a lot of problems between different communities and with the aim of promoting the interest of the terrorists," according to a social media statement.

Suu Kyi under pressure to speak out

Myanmar's state counsellor is under pressure from world leaders and critics to speak out against the violence in Rakhine city.

Since the Myanmar army launched a military counter-offensive against Rohingya militants just under two weeks ago, around 400 people have been killed and more than 125,000, mostly women and children, have fled across the border into Bangladesh.

Observers have warned that Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority — considered one of the world's most persecuted ethnic groups — could be facing genocide.

Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim majority country, has called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to put pressure on Myanmar's government, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday warned of the risk of ethnic cleansing and regional destabilization.

Suu Kyi's silence has led many critics to call for her Nobel Peace Prize, which she was awarded in 1991 as a champion of democracy, to be revoked.

Other leaders have been less reprimanding, however. During a visit to Myanmar Wednesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Suu Kyi that his country shared her "concerns about extremist violence in Rakhine state and specially the violence against security forces and how innocent lives have been affected."

Modi has taken a strong stance against the roughly 40,000 Rohingya who have fled Myanmar to India in recent years, vowing to deport them all.

In a brief statement, Suu Kyi thanked Modi for his stance on the attacks and that the two countries would work together to stem the "terrorist threat."

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dm/ng (Reuters, AFP, dpa)