Aung San Suu Kyi

Myanmar’s defacto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said she is aware of frustrations with her one-year-old government and that she is ready to step down if people are unhappy with its achievements.

“I have said since the beginning that I would try my best,” State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi said in a rare televised address to mark her government’s first anniversary in office.

“If people think my best effort is not enough for them and if there are any other people or organizations who can do better than us, we are ready to step down”, she said.

In what had been billed as a State of the Union speech, Suu Kyi focused on the peace process in Myanmar, where fighting has recently flared up in the northern state of Kachin and the eastern state of Shan.

“It is not easy, but we have a lot of hope”, she said.

In an announcement which coincided with the speech, the government said that five new ethnic armed groups had agreed to sign a ceasefire.

While the Nobel Peace laureate still enjoys widespread support within Myanmar, she has disappointed many international observers who have criticised her for not speaking up against human rights abuses in the country.

Around 70,000 people have fled from a military security operation in Rakhine State since October.

The UN fears the human rights abuses committed by soldiers might amount to “crimes against humanity”.

But Suu Kyi reiterated her rejection of the UN Human Rights Council’s recent decision to launch a fact-finding mission.

“We are the ones who best understand what our country needs,” she said.(dpa/NAN)