Aung San Suu Kyi defends jailing of Reuters journalists in Myanmar
Aung San Suu Kyi defended the jailing of two journalists who reported on the Rohingya Muslim crisis, in a speech likely to add to her fall from grace.
Ms Suu Kyi, once praised as a global rights champion, is under intense pressure to use her moral force in Myanmar, where the country’s military wields enormous power.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment last week for reporting on atrocities committed during the military crackdown in Rakhine state.
But rather than defend the pair, Ms Suu Kyi hit back at global criticism of the journalists’ treatment during a trial widely regarded as an attempt to muzzle the press.
Myanmar’s de facto leader acknowledged that the brutal crackdown on the Muslim minority – which the United Nations has called genocide – could have been “handled better”, but said the two reporters had been treated fairly.
“They were not jailed because they were journalists”, but because “the court has decided that they had broken the Official Secrets Act”, she said. Challenging critics of the verdict – including the UN, rights groups who once praised her and the US vice president – to “point out” where there has been a miscarriage of justice, she said that the case upheld the rule of law. “The case was held in open court ... I don’t think anybody has bothered to read the summary of the judge,” she said during a discussion at the World Economic Forum in Hanoi, emphasising that the pair still had the right to appeal.
However, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini repeated a call for the reporters’ immediate, unconditional release, saying they had not had a fair trial.
“Many observers saw this trial as a test of freedom of the media, democracy and the rule of law in the country. It is pretty clear that the test was failed,” Mogherini told the European Parliament.
Army-led “clearance operations” that started last August drove 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, carrying with them accounts of atrocities – rape, murder and arson – by Myanmar police and soldiers.
The ferocity of that crackdown thrust Myanmar into a firestorm of criticism as western goodwill evaporated towards a country ruled by a junta until 2015.
A UN committee is calling for Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing and other top generals to be prosecuted for genocide.
Ms Suu Kyi, who has bristled at foreign criticism of her country, on Thursday softened her defence of the crackdown. “There are of course ways [in] which, in hindsight, the situation could have been handled better,” she said.
But she also appeared to turn responsibility on to neighbouring Bangladesh for failing to start the repatriation of nearly one million Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.
Bangladesh “was not ready” to start repatriation of the Rohingya in January, as agreed under a deal between the two countries, she said.
Yet Myanmar does not want its Rohingya, denying them citizenship, while the Buddhist-majority public falsely label them Bengali interlopers.
The jailing of the reporters sent a chill through Myanmar’s media.
The pair denied the charges, insisting they were set up while exposing the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya in the village of Inn Din last September.
They were not jailed because they were journalists ... the court has decided they broke the Official Secrets Act AUNG SAN SUU KYI Myanmar State Counsellor