SINGAPORE, Nov 14, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The violence which drove 700,000
Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar into Bangladesh was “without excuse”, US Vice
President Mike Pence told Aung San Suu Kyi in stinging comments on Wednesday.
On the sidelines of a summit in Singapore Pence piled the pressure on
Myanmar’s de facto leader, calling for an explanation of the jailing of two
Reuters journalists over their coverage of the crisis.
Suu Kyi has seen her reputation as a rights defender shredded by her
refusal to speak up for the Rohingya, a stateless group reviled in the
Buddhist-majority country.
She has already had an Amnesty International honour revoked this week and
faced sharp words from Malaysia’s premier at a usually tepid meeting of
Southeast nations in Singapore.
In direct marks as he sat next to Suu Kyi, Pence condemned the “violence
and persecution” against the Rohingya as “without excuse”.
Then in a front-on challenge to Myanmar’s civilian leader, Pence said he
was “anxious to hear about the progress” being made to hold the perpetrators
accountable.
A crackdown led by Myanmar’s army last year sparked an exodus of the Muslim
minority into neighbouring Bangladesh, taking with them accounts of
atrocities — rape, murder and arson of their villages.
UN investigators say the army’s actions amounted to genocide.
Myanmar does not want its Rohingya, who are officially described as
“Bengali” illegal immigrants.
And the Rohingya do not want to go back without security guarantees and
citizenship.
But the fetid and overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh offer little
future for the more than one million Rohingya who have fled successive waves
of violence in Myanmar.
– Jailed journalists –
The Rohingya crisis has decimated Myanmar’s reputation among large sections
of an international community which helped shape its transition from outright
military rule.
Suu Kyi has no power over the army, which retains autonomy over all
security matters.
But she has come under fire for not doing more to speak out against the
generals’ excesses.
She has also been criticised for her failure to speak up for two Reuters
reporters jailed for seven years for breaching a colonial-era state secrets
act after reporting on the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya men during a
military crackdown last year.
Pence called their case “deeply troubling”, adding America placed a
“premium … on a free and independent press”.
The sentence prompted a storm of global outcry as an assault on freedom of
speech, casting doubt on the direction and depth of Myanmar reforms.
Suu Kyi brushed off Pence’s comments.
“In a way, we can say we understand our country better than any other
country does,” she added.
In her only direct comments on the Reuters case Suu Kyi — herself once a
political prisoner held under house arrest by the former junta — has said
the pair were jailed under a fair legal process.
“They were not jailed because they were journalists” but because “the court
has decided that they had broken the Official Secrets Act”, she said in
September.
Suu Kyi’s civilian government had the power to drop the charges.
Reuters have appealed the verdict and have been lobbying for the release of
the pair who they say were set up by police and arrested to silence their
reporting.
The High Court is likely to take up to five or six months to rule on the
appeal, during which time the reporters will remain in Yangon’s notorious
Insein prison.
After numerous delays, the first significant group of Rohingya — some
2,000 strong — is due to return to Myanmar on November 15 as part of a
repatriation deal signed with Bangladesh a year ago.