Veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson was pursuing "his own agenda" when he was asked to step down from Myanmar's international advisory board on the Rohingya crisis, a statement from the Myanmar government said on Thursday. Richardson said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that he was resigning from the board because it was conducting a "whitewash" and accused Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, of lacking "moral leadership".
The departure of Richardson, a former Clinton administration cabinet member, came as the 10-member advisory board was making its first visit to western Rakhine State, from where around 688,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled in recent months.