During an interview with Indian news channel NDTV she said that illegal crossing of the shared border with Bangladesh had to be stopped “otherwise there will never be an end to the problem”.

The foreign ministry claims Suu Kyi’s comments suggested that Rohingyas in Burma were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

However in the interview she said “Bangladesh will say all these people have come from Burma (Myanmar) and the Burmese say all these people have come over from Bangladesh”.

Suu Kyi also said the illegal border crossings has to stop but didn’t offer much support to the more than 100,000 people who have displaced from communal violence in June and October. The majority being Muslim.

“Don’t forget that violence has been committed by both sides, this is why I prefer not to take sides and also I want to work towards reconciliation.”

According to the Bangladesh foreign ministry statement, there had been occasional influxes of
Rohingya to Bangladesh due to the “internal situation in their homeland" since the country got independence. It also claimed there is historical evidence that clearly shows Rohingya have been living in Arakan State for centuries - Bangladesh only came into existence in 1971.

“Bangladesh and Burma are working closely to resolve this longstanding issue and to move forward in exploring the enormous potentials for bilateral cooperation on the repatriation of the residual Burmese
refugees with the support of UNHCR,” according to the statement.