Pressure on Aung San Suu Kyi as thousands flee

The Foreign Minister of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has flown to Burma for emergency talks as pressure mounts on Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's leader, to resolve a humanitarian crisis in her country.

The Nobel peace prize laureate is facing severe international criticism over her Government's treatment of about 1.1 million Rohingya, one of the world's most persecuted groups, in her country's restive Rakhine state.

Retno Marsudi, the Indonesian Foreign Minister, arrived in Burma's capital, Rangoon, as protesters in her own capital, Jakarta, launched a Molotov cocktail at the Burmese embassy.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish President, said at the weekend that violence against the Muslim Rohingyas amounted to genocide, while British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson warned Suu Kyi that the oppression of the minority was "besmirching" her country's reputation.

About 73,000 Rohingya refugees have fled across the border from Burma, which is also known as Myanmar, to Bangladesh over the past week, with aid workers warning that relief camps can take no more. Nearly 400 people have died since the exodus began on August 25 after Rohingya insurgents attacked Burmese paramilitary posts, in what they claimed was an attempt to protect their Muslim minority from persecution.

The military responded with sweeping "clearance operations", declaring the majority of casualties were militants. But Rohingya human rights activists countered that at least 1000, mainly civilians, had been massacred by Government soldiers.

"There are 1000 confirmed Rohingya people who have been killed by the Burmese army ... and that toll may be much higher," claimed Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK.

Reports of civilian casualties were backed by an aid official in Bangladesh who told AP that more than 50 refugees had arrived with bullet injuries.

Human rights workers such as Benedict Rogers, East Asia team leader for Christian Solidarity Worldwide, have compared the crisis to the notorious massacres of Rwanda, Darfur and Kosovo.