Laying down a principle that all surgical strikes must be treated on ‘case to case basis’, Myanmar’s Foreign Minister and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday said that terrorism in any form is unacceptable.
“I don't think we should lay down our principles saying that all surgical strikes are acceptable. We have to look at these instances case by case, otherwise we will be on a slippery slope of deciding that all strikes are acceptable,” the Leader of the National League for Democracy, who is in India, said.
“Terrorism in any form is unacceptable because we are not going to change the world by using terror. Terrorism is not something that we can in anyway tolerate or allow to grow,” she added.
When asked how the world can work to isolate Pakistan over terror, Suu Kyi said that the world community needs to isolate terror itself and focus on the reasons why people resort to terrorism
“Terrorism is rife all over the world, so I think it’s terrorism we need to isolate and to eliminate. I do not like to think in terms of individuals or organisations or countries, although these come into the equation as well,” she said.
Suu Kyi’s remarks came against the backdrop of India’s campaign to isolate Pakistan over using cross-border terrorism as a ‘state policy’.
The teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, she said, tell us to achieve the ‘goals through peaceful means’.
“We believe in non-violence and surgical strike also is a violent form of attack. All attacks are violent. So this puts all in quandary. How do we achieve the goals that Gandhi ji was convinced we could achieve through peaceful means in this age of terror and terrorism,” she said.
“Defence in any form, if it is defence on battle ground, it is a form of violence. And Gandhi ji had to face that moral problem himself. I think, we all to have face it along the way,” she added.
She was responding to a question whether her country would support India's move on surgical strike if there is any evidence of terrorism.
Last year, the Indian Army conducted an operation against militant groups along the border with Myanmar. The operation was carried out after rebels ambushed an Army convoy in Chandel district of Manipur that killed 18 Army jawans.
The Myanmarese leader arrived here on Sunday on a four-day state visit, her first since taking office earlier this year as state councillor in Myanmar’s first democratic government in many decades.
