Myanmar hosts regional meeting to discuss Rohingya crisis

In this photo released by Myanmar State Media, Myanmar Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, center, attends a meeting with foreign ministers from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a hotel in Yangon, Myanmar Monday, Dec.19, 2016. (Myanmar State Media via AP) (The Associated Press)

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Thailand's Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai, center, arrives for a foreign ministers' meeting from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries Monday, Dec.19, 2016, in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw) (The Associated Press)

In this photo released by Myanmar State Media, Myanmar Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, center, links with foreign ministers from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) before their meeting at a hotel Monday, Dec.19, 2016, in Yangon, Myanmar. (Myanmar State Media via AP) (The Associated Press)

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has met with regional foreign ministers to tackle growing international criticism of her army's forceful treatment of the country's Muslim Rohingya minority, which some critics say constitutes crimes against humanity.

Human rights groups have accused the military of perpetrating mass murder, looting and rape against the Rohingya in the western state of Rakhine, where the army went on a counterinsurgency offensive after an October attack there on police outposts that killed nine officers.

The roughly 1 million Rohingya in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar face severe social and official discrimination.

Member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, along with Bangladesh, have long coped with Rohingya refugees.

Suu Kyi met with ASEAN foreign ministers Monday in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city.