Suu Kyi’s comments attract sharp rebuke
HANOI/NEW YORK: Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s statement yesterday that the jailing of two Reuters journalists had nothing to do with freedom of expression and they could appeal their sevenyear sentences has prompted a sharp rebuke from the United States.
Suu Kyi, in her first public comment on the case since the two, Wa Lone (32) and Kyaw Soe Oo (28), were convicted last week, referred to the colonialera law under which they were charged.
‘‘They were not jailed because they were journalists, they were jailed because . . . the court has decided that they have broken the Official Secrets Act,’’ she said at a conference of the World Economic Forum in Hanoi.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley described her remarks as ‘‘unbelievable’’, in what appeared to be the sharpest direct public rebuke of the Myanmar leader by a US official.
‘‘First, in denial about the abuse the Burmese military placed on the Rohingya, now justifying the imprisonment of the two Reuters reporters who reported on the ethnic cleansing. Unbelievable,’’ Haley tweeted yesterday.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said later the verdict called press freedom in Myanmar into question.
‘‘The fact that those journalists were convicted despite testimony by police that they were ordered to frame those journalists, that in our view raises serious concerns about the judicial independence and the fair trial guarantees they are supposed to have in that country,’’ Nauert said.
‘‘We continue to urge the Government of Burma to take action immediately to correct this injustice.’’ — Reuters