DHAKA (Reuters) - U.S. envoy Sam Brownback called on
Thursday for the release of journalists jailed in Myanmar while covering the
plight of ethnic Rohingya Muslims forced to flee a military crackdown.
A court is deliberating over whether they will be charged
under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act for possessing secret government
papers - an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
Brownback spoke in Bangladesh, where he was on a mission
to see at first hand the plight of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya crammed
into refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar region bordering Myanmar.
“The journalists should be released who are in jail in
Myanmar,” Brownback, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom,
told a news conference in Dhaka, without naming any individuals or their
employers.
The United States is among several governments pressing
for the release of two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who have
been held in Myanmar since December.
Read also: More actions against Myanmar coming, says US Ambassador
at Large Brownback: https://lnkd.in/gN2XTeU
Aside from the U.S. administration, Canada, Britain and
several other European countries, as well as top United Nations and EU
officials have called for the journalists’ release.
On April 11, a Myanmar judge rejected a defense request
to dismiss the case against the two reporters for lack of evidence. The judge
said he wanted to hear eight remaining prosecution witnesses out of the 25
listed, according to defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw.
Brownback praised the media’s work covering events since
the Rohingya crisis began in August, and said journalists should be allowed to
move freely in Myanmar and the region to report on developments.
Brownback described the campaign against the Rohingya as
“ethnic cleansing against a Muslim minority”.
Myanmar rejects that description, saying its action was a
legitimate counter-insurgency operation in response to a series of militant
attacks on security posts and an army camp in its northwestern Rakhine state.
Earlier this month, however, seven Myanmar soldiers were
sentenced to 10 years “with hard labor in a remote area” for participating in a
massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in Rakhine last September, the army said.
According to U.N. officials, nearly 700,000 Rohingya have
fled into Bangladesh from Rakhine.
Asked about possible U.S. measures against Myanmar over
the crisis, Brownback told the news conference: “We will continue to
investigate to get a clear picture.”
He added that several members of the U.S. Congress and
Vice President Mike Pence had expressed deep concern to him.
Myanmar reported on Saturday the first return to Rakhine
state of a refugee Rohingya family from Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government
and the United Nations refugee agency said they had no knowledge of any such
repatriation.