SITTWE, Myanmar, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Myanmars de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on Thursday visited areas riven by ethnic violence for the first time since hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims began fleeing the country to escape a brutal military operation launched in late August.

Reuters photographers saw thousands of desperate Rohingya wade through shallows and narrow creeks between islands of the Naf river to reach neighboring Bangladesh the previous evening.