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Posted: November 15, 2018
US Vice President Mike Pence pbades Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi as he arrives for a group photo with ASEAN leaders at the ASEAN-US summit in Singapore on November 15, 2018 (REUTERS / Edgar Su)
US Vice President Mike Pence has expressed the most severe sentence ever made by the Trump administration of Myanmar. The treatment reserved for Rohingya Muslims on Wednesday, told the leader Aung San Suu Kyi that "the persecution" by his country's army was "without excuse".
Pence also urged Suu Kyi to pardon two Reuters journalists arrested nearly a year ago and sentenced to seven years in September for breaking the law on official secrets.
"The violence and persecution perpetrated by the armed forces and security forces that drove 700,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh are unapologetic," Pence told Suu Kyi in an open statement to the media before they left. private talks on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore.
"I look forward to hearing the progress you are making in empowering those responsible for the acts of violence that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people and created such suffering.
The Myanmar army launched a radical offensive in northern Rakhine State in late August in response to Rohingya attacks. Myanmar denies persecuting members of the Muslim minority, claiming that its forces had conducted legitimate counter-insurgency operations.
The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who will meet Pence on Thursday, also said in a statement issued by the president. Singapore waits Wednesday night for an investigation commission set up by the Myanmar government "in order to hold to account by conducting an independent and impartial investigation into alleged human rights violations and related issues" in the state from Rakhine.
The appeals appeared to reflect a stronger line of the 10-member ASEAN group, which traditionally works by consensus and is reluctant to engage in matters considered internal to its members.
DIFFERENT VIEWS
Suu Kyi, who has a stony face near Pence as he spoke, said, "Of course, people have different points of view, but the fact is that you have to exchange these points of view and try to understand each other. st. "
" In one way, we can say that we understand our country better than any other country and I am sure you will say the same as you, that you understand your country better than anyone ", a- she added.
The United States accuses the army of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya, who are widely criticized in Myanmar, mostly Buddhist.
UN-mandated investigators have accused soldiers launch campaign of murder, rape and arson with "genocidal intent"
This week, Amnesty International withdrew Suu Kyi's most prestigious human rights award. man, accusing him of perpetuating human rights abuses without speaking out about violence against the Rohingya
In his fight for democracy, the Nobel laureate of the Peace of 1991 was deprived of a series of distinctions s international awards for Rohingya exodus.
Neither Suu Kyi nor her office publicly commented on Amnesty Int's decision.
Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay did not respond to calls regarding Mr. Pence's comments on Wednesday.
ARRESTS OF JOURNALISTS
M. Pence also said Washington wanted to see a free and democratic press in Myanmar. In America, we believe in our democratic institutions and ideals, including with a free and independent press. After their in camera meeting, White House officials said he had urged her "several times" to pardon the two reporters found guilty of Reuters. [19659006] "They had a very frank exchange of views on this," said a senior White House official.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, Reuters journalists, two Myanmar nationals, were arrested in Yangon last December. On November 5, their lawyers appealed their conviction.
At the time of their arrest in December, they were working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim villagers
during an army-led crackdown in Rakhine State. Reuters released its investigation of the mbadacre on February 8.
Suu Kyi said that the imprisonment of Reuters journalists had nothing to do with the freedom of expression and that they had been sentenced, not because of the fact. they were journalists, but because they broke the law on official secrets.
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