New York 17 Sep (ANA) - Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has "a last chance" to halt an army offensive that has forced hundreds of thousands of the mainly Muslim Rohingya to flee abroad, the UN head has said. Antonio Guterres told the BBC unless she acted now, "the tragedy will be absolutely horrible".

The UN has warned the offensive could amount to ethnic cleansing. Myanmar says it is responding to last month's deadly attacks by militants and denies it is targeting civilians. The military launched its operation after the attacks on police in the northern Rakhine state. In an interview with BBC's HARDtalk programme ahead of this week's UN General Assembly, Mr Guterres said Aung San Suu Kyi had a last chance to stop the offensive during her address to the nation on Tuesday. "If she does not reverse the situation now, then I think the tragedy will be absolutely horrible, and unfortunately then I don't see how this can be reversed in the future."(ANA)

FA/ANA/17 September 2017-----