Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi has defended the jailing of
two Reuters journalists, despite international condemnation.
The two were sentenced for possession of police documents
while investigating the killing of Rohingya Muslims. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45392972
Ms Suu Kyi also said her government could in hindsight
have handled the Rohingya situation differently.
Since last year, at least 700,000 Rohingya have fled
Myanmar, also known as Burma, after the army launched a brutal crackdown in
response to attacks by a Rohingya militant group.
The UN has called for top military figures to be
investigated for genocide.
What did Suu Kyi say?
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate - who is Myanmar's de
facto leader - had been under intense pressure to comment on both the Rohingya
crisis and more recently the journalists, following their jailing last week.
This week, a UN rights body accused Myanmar of
"waging a campaign against journalists" and the verdict has sparked
criticism internationally, including from US Vice President Mike Pence.
Has Suu Kyi turned her back on free press? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45417316
The country where Facebook posts whipped up
hate https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-45449938
Aung San Suu Kyi: The democracy icon who fell
from grace https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11685977
Breaking her silence on Thursday at an international
economics conference in Vietnam, Ms Suu Kyi said the case against the
international news agency journalists upheld the rule of law.
She suggested that many critics had not actually read the
verdict, saying: "They were not jailed because they were journalists, they
were jailed because... the court has decided that they have broken the Official
Secrets Act."
Star TV: Wives of jailed journalists ask Myanmar for mercy: https://youtu.be/GnkfInSqMdE
What was the case against the reporters?
The Reuters pair were sentenced to seven years in prison
on 3 September for violating the state secrets act while investigating a
massacre of Rohingya men by the military at a village called Inn Din in Rakhine
state.
The two Myanmar nationals had been arrested while
carrying official documents which had just been given to them by police
officers in a restaurant.
They said they were set up by police, a claim backed by a
police witness in the trial.
The Burmese authorities later launched their own
investigation into what happened at Inn Din, and jailed seven soldiers for
their involvement in the killings of 10 Rohingya Muslim men there. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-43721394
It was a rare admission of wrongdoing - the military has
exonerated itself of blame for the violence and refused to allow journalists
and external investigators to work freely in Rakhine.
Read their report 'Massacre in Myanmar' https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-rakhine-events/
The story behind the journalists' arrest https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42956176
Blow by blow: How a 'genocide' was investigated https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-45341112
Suu Kyi's mantra: 'Rule of law'
By Jonathan Head, BBC South East Asia
correspondent
Not once at the World Economic Forum event did Aung San
Suu Kyi acknowledge the suffering of the Rohingyas, or the allegations of
appalling atrocities against them by her armed forces. Instead she deflected
the question. She referred to the decline of small minorities in Rakhine state,
whose survival she worries about - a bizarre false equivalence to the alleged
genocide of a Rohingya population numbering well over a million.
And she fell back on a favourite refrain - the rule of
law. It should apply equally to all communities in Rakhine, she explained. The
two Reuters reporters, she said, were found to have broken the law, they were
not punished for their journalism.
Ms Suu Kyi has long talked about the need to reform
Myanmar's judiciary and improve the rule of law. Some reforms have been made
under her government. But the judicial system remains corrupt, capricious, with
disproportionately harsh sentences and, says the International Commission of
Jurists, with judges subject to political and military influence. Many laws are
condemned as unjust relics of an authoritarian past.
The colonial-era Official Secrets Act is so vague and
sweeping it criminalises obtaining or reading any document the government deems
sensitive. Under these conditions the term "rule of law" has little
meaning.
How tarnished is Suu Kyi's reputation?
The 73-year-old former activist, who spent more than a
decade under house arrest during the military junta period, was once seen as a
global human rights icon.
But her perceived failure to stop the rape and killing of
Rohingyas has sullied her international reputation and several honours have
been withdrawn.
However, she remains very popular in Myanmar, where many
people see the Rohingya as interlopers from Bangladesh.
Human Rights Watch responded to Ms Suu Kyi's comments by
saying that she "got it all wrong".
Could Aung San Suu Kyi face Rohingya genocide
charges? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42335018
"She fails to understand that real 'rule of law'
means respect for evidence presented in court, actions brought based on clearly
defined and proportionate laws, and independence of the judiciary from
influence by the government or security forces," Deputy Asia Director Phil
Robertson said.
"On all these counts, the trial of the Reuters
journalists failed the test."
What's the background to the Rohingya
situation?
The Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination in
Myanmar and are denied citizenship.
The latest crisis erupted in August 2017 when a brutal
military crackdown was launched in far-western Rakhine state in response to a
Rohingya militant group attacking more than 30 police posts.
Last month, a UN report said top military figures in
Myanmar must be investigated for genocide in Rakhine state and crimes
against humanity in other areas. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45318982
The report describes the army's response - including
murder, torture, rape, sexual slavery, persecution and enslavement - as
"grossly disproportionate to actual security threats".
Ms Suu Kyi has not criticised the powerful military but
on Thursday admitted that, in hindsight, "the situation could have been
handled better" by her government.
"But we believe that for the sake of long-term
stability and security we have to be fair to all sides," she said.
"We cannot choose and pick who should be protected by the rule of
law."
.