A Fallen Icon

WehopeAung San Suu Kyi, the figurehead leader of Myanmar, aka Burma, regretted seeking a joint press conference with Vice President Mike Pence at last week’s Asia summit — because he called out her government’s ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority.

“The violence and persecution by military and vigilantes that resulted in driving 700,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh is without excuse,” Pence told Suu Kyi on Wednesday.

Over a year ago, Myanmar’s military slaughtered thousands of Rohingya, a Muslim minority in the Rakhine state, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to next-door Bangladesh. Tens of thousands of the refugees remain missing.

“I’m anxious to hear about the progress that you’re making, holding those accountable who are responsible for the violence that displaced so many hundreds of thousands and created such suffering, including the loss of life,” Pence added.

As she has from the start, Suu Kyi dodged, claiming, “We understand our country better than any other country does.” In other words: You foreigners just don’t understand why we’ve declared war on this minority.

In fact, the junta that truly rules the land it renamed “Myanmar” is using ethnic anger to distract from its tyranny. And Suu Kyi is plainly complicit — a former crusader for democracy who’s now serving as the beard for the thugs she long opposed.

Amnesty International recently stripped her of its Ambassador of Conscience Award, citing her “shameful betrayal of the values she once stood for.” More: “We are profoundly dismayed that you no longer represent a symbol of hope, courage and the undying defense of human rights.”

By the way, Pence also called out Suu Kyi on the regime’s jailing of two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who’d been reporting on the Rohingya slaughter.

Sadly, Team Trump doesn’t have many levers to push for change here: Myanmar is shielded by China, which is busy brutally “re-educating” a million Uighurs — its own Muslim minority.

Racist tyrannies have a habit of sticking together.