Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi Monday said bringing peace to the country’s strife-wracked ethnic regions will be a priority for her government when it takes power.

The veteran democracy champion’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party swept landmark November polls that look set to curtail the military’s decades-long chokehold on the country.

But under Myanmar’s complicated junta-era political charter, her party is not expected to take power until February — and Suu Kyi herself is banned from becoming president.

“We have to build peace. Building peace is the first ever duty of a new government,” she told supporters at the party’s Yangon headquarters on Monday, during a speech marking the country’s Independence Day.

“We have to work to include everyone in a signed ceasefire agreement by holding a really effective peace conference,” she added.

The 70-year-old opposition leader had remained somewhat tight-lipped on what her government’s main objectives and who her main players will be, as delicate transition negotiations continue between the incumbent military-backed government and her victorious party.

Myanmar is a patchwork of ethnic identities with over 130 officially-recognised minority groups, many with distinct languages and cultures.

Across vast swathes of these often remote regions, ethnic rebel groups have fought wars against the military for greater autonomy, many of them lasting for decades.

Ethnic minorities have long accused the central government and the military of human rights abuses and resource grabs.

Myanmar’s outgoing quasi-civilian, military-backed government recently inked ceasefires with a clutch of ethnic armed groups, with a landmark peace conference due to start next Tuesday.

But several major conflicts persist and some of the most significant insurgent outfits have yet to sign up to the deal.

Suu Kyi has said her party supports a federal future and has made ethnic affairs and peace a central pillar of her party manifesto for Myanmar, where ethnic minority groups have fought decades-long wars for greater autonomy.

But she was criticised in the run-up to the polls for failing to reach out to minority parties.

“All people have to participate in our struggle,” she told supporters. “Tatmadaw (the army) must participate. Ethnic groups must participate.”

Suu Kyi is acutely aware that even once her government takes power, its rule will be limited.

The military retains huge power with a quarter of parliamentary seats reserved for unelected soldiers, and military appointees in charge of key security ministries.

The ban on Suu Kyi taking the top position of president stems from her having married a foreigner and having foreign born children.

Outgoing president Thein Sein steps down on March 31. His successor will be chosen in a vote by Myanmar’s two legislative houses and the military parliamentary bloc.

Suu Kyi has vowed to rewrite the junta-era constitution and be “above the president” when her government takes power.

A Rakhine (Magh) man suspected to be a militant member from Arakan Army (AA) was caught while plotting to create unrest in ‘Aung Mingalar’ Quarter in Sittwe (Akyab) Township yesterday, according to the local reports.

It was around 9:30AM yesterday (January 3, 2015) when a Rakhine man entered ‘Kyauk-Yoe Kwet Sone’ in ‘Aung Mingalar’ quarter from the side of the Rakhine sub-quarters in ‘Kundan’ Quarter. The local Rohingyas caught him with the help of the local elder, U Shwe Hla, as they became suspicious of him carrying out activities to trigger unrest.

As soon as he was caught, they called the Police from No. 1 Police station in Sittwe. The In-charge of the Regional Security Police, U Kyaw Thaung, arrived and the local Rohingyas handed him (the suspected militant) over to the police officer. 

It has been learnt that FIR has been lodged against him subsequently after the arrest. 

As the intense fighting between the Burmese (Myanmar) Military and the Arakan Army (AA), a Rakhine militant outfit, broke out in late December 2015, there have been many attempts to create violence against Rohingyas all over Arakan state as a tactic for ‘Public-Attention Diversion.’ 

Similarly, the Burmese domestic media directly or indirectly controlled by Rakhine interest groups have been playing similar roles by arbitrarily alleging the Genocide Victims, Rohingya Muslims, to have links with foreign extremist groups [the links that never exist in reality.

Myanmar authorities have denied an application for a planned seminar on the ethnic identity of Rohingya Muslims living in the troubled western state of Arakan (Rakhine), according to an official Thursday.

Rohingya – whom the United Nations consider to be the world’s most persecuted ethnic minority — have been fleeing Myanmar in droves since 2012, in fear of violence that some human rights groups consider to be state sponsored.

A senior official confirmed to Anadolu Agency on Thursday that Yangon’s regional government had decided Wednesday to block the seminar, expressing concern that it could have sparked anger among the public.

“According to the decision of the cabinet meeting yesterday, we informed the organizers today that [they] were not permitted to hold the seminar,” the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with media.

“The seminar is not necessary at this time as even the President doesn’t accept the ‘Rohingya’ word.

Anadolu Agency was unable to reach organizers and participants of the “Consideration on the Ethnic Identity of So-called Rohingya” event for comment.

More than one million Rohingya Muslims – who the government denies citizenship in their own land, living in Arakan (Rakhine), which has witnessed a series of violent outbreaks between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and minority Muslims since mid-2012.

According to the Arakan Project, a group monitoring rights violations and migration across the Bay of Bengal, the conflict has left hundreds dead and more than 140,000 – mostly Rohingya — confined to internal displacement camps.

Following a human trafficking crisis in Southeast Asia earlier this year, Myanmar’s neighbors had called on the country to resolve its Muslim Rohingya issue — which human rights groups have claimed is the source of the trafficking problem.

Myanmar has responded to any criticism of its internal problems by accusing outsiders of interfering in its affairs.

A French national working with an Islamic NGO has been arrested in Bangladesh, reportedly accused of “suspicious activities” that could mean up to 10 years in jail. He was working with the Rohingya minority, Muslims who have fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Puemo Tchantchuing, who prefers to be known as Moussa Ibn Yacoub since his conversion to Islam, was arrested on Tuesday 22 December and has been detained since then.

As well as being accused of “suspicious activities”, punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment, he may be charged with using a false identity, because the name he uses is not the one on his passport and identity card, according to lawyer Samim Bolaky.

He was working for the French-based NGO Baraka City, which says he was stopped at a checkpoint while going to schools and orphanages in the south of the country where the Rohingya camps are situated.

“He is being kept in catastrophic conditions in cells that contain more than 40 prisoners,” Bolaky said.

He also faces charges for not registering with the authorities, according to Baraka City, which says that since the Rohingya are considered illegal immigrants it is not possible for the NGO to declare its presence legally.

The French embassy in Bangladesh has provided the “usual protection” and he is waiting to appear in court, France’s foreign ministry said.

Baraka City, which was founded by strict Salafist Muslims, manages a budget of several million euros.

French police have searched its premises several times and its bank accounts have been closed on more than one occassion but no connection to terrorist groups has ever been established.

Over 97,000 people had signed a Facebook petition for the detained man’s release on Sunday afternoon.

At least seven Rohingya houses were destroyed by an accidental fire at ‘Aung Sit Pyin’ village in northern Maungdaw yesterday evening.

The fire is said to have broken out from the kitchen around 5:30PM yesterday (on December 23) and gone out of control afterwards. The began from the house of a man named U Dudu Meah at ‘Dom Paik’ hamlet of ‘Aung Sit Pyin’ village tract to the north of ‘Kyeing Chaung (Boli Bazaar)’ village.

The fire brigade didn’t arrive as usual as it is a Rohingya village. However, the villagers came together and managed to extinguish the fire few hours later.

The Burmese (Myanmar) Border Guard Police (BGP) severely beat up two Rohingya men in northern December 13 in order to squeeze money from them, the reliable sources report.

A group of six BGP personnel from ‘Nagkura (Nagpura)’ camp under commandment area 5 made to the ‘MyaZin’ hamlet of ‘Lon Doong’ village tract in northern around 10:00PM on December 13. There, they beat up two innocent Rohingya men accusing them of wrong reasons. 

“Anwar Sadek Iman Hussein, a young Rohingya boy, was talking to his friend on phone standing at the gate of his house. There, the BGP encountered them and accused him of using Bangala phone.

However, they searched his body, they only found out a Myanmar MPT phone. However, the BGP accused him of hiding his Bangala phone and started beating him. After that, they not only seized his MPT phone but also extorted Kyat 40,000 from him.

Subsequently, they raided the redsidence of Mr. Abu Shukkor Akhbar Ali around 11:00PM night and said that they received a complaint against him. There at his own home, they beat him for one hour until 12:00 midnight.

After that, they took him to their camp where they beat and threatened him for the whole night. On December 14 morning, they released him after extorting Kyat 500,000.

However, he received severe injuries on his face from the tortures,” said a local Rohingya in northern Maungdaw.

The Border Guard Police beat and torture Rohingyas for no reason; they extort money from them; they humiliate Rohingya women ; and sometimes, they even kill them (the innocent Rohingyas). However, the higher authorities just let them commit the atrocities with impunity.