Aung San Suu Kyi acknowledges Rohingya Crisis 'could have been handled better'
- 6 years ago
Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has made a rare admission that her government could have handled violence against Rohingya Muslims better.
She made the comments on Thursday at the World Economic Forum on ASEAN in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi…
"There are of course ways in which we, in hindsight, might think that the situation could've been handled better. But we believe that for the sake of long-term stability and security we have to be fair to all sides, the rule of law must apply to everybody."
However, she defended the jailing of two Reuters journalists, who were reporting on the crisis, denying their conviction had anything to with freedom of expression.
"It was not a matter of, they were not jailed because they were journalist. They were jailed because the court has.... well, sentence has been passed on them because the court has decided that they have broken the Official Secret Act. So if we believe in the rule of law, they have every right to appeal the judgement and to point out why the judgement is wrong, if they consider it wrong."
This sparked a sharp rebuke from the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who, in a tweet, described the leader's remarks as "unbelievable."
The jailing of the journalists has sparked international condemnation and the UN has called for top figures in the Burmese military to be investigated for genocide.
She made the comments on Thursday at the World Economic Forum on ASEAN in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi…
"There are of course ways in which we, in hindsight, might think that the situation could've been handled better. But we believe that for the sake of long-term stability and security we have to be fair to all sides, the rule of law must apply to everybody."
However, she defended the jailing of two Reuters journalists, who were reporting on the crisis, denying their conviction had anything to with freedom of expression.
"It was not a matter of, they were not jailed because they were journalist. They were jailed because the court has.... well, sentence has been passed on them because the court has decided that they have broken the Official Secret Act. So if we believe in the rule of law, they have every right to appeal the judgement and to point out why the judgement is wrong, if they consider it wrong."
This sparked a sharp rebuke from the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who, in a tweet, described the leader's remarks as "unbelievable."
The jailing of the journalists has sparked international condemnation and the UN has called for top figures in the Burmese military to be investigated for genocide.