Myanmar, accused of crackdown, invited to U.S. -Thai military exercise

[rooster59]

Myanmar, accused of crackdown, invited to U.S. -Thai military exercise

By Idrees Ali

 

Aung San Suu Kyi (C) and Myanmar Military Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing arrive (R) in Naypyitaw, Myanmar; March 30, 2016. REUTERS/Ye Aung Thu/Pool

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Myanmar military, which has been accused of ethnic cleansing against the country's Muslim Rohingya minority, has been invited back as an observer in a major multinational military exercise next year led by the United States and Thailand.       

 

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman, told Reuters that Thailand had invited Myanmar to take part in the annual Cobra Gold exercise, which involves thousands of U.S and Thai military personnel and participants from other Asian countries.

 

Myanmar had been invited to observe the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief portion of the exercise, Logan said.

 

A senior officer at the Directorate of Joint Intelligence of the Royal Thai Armed Forces told Reuters it was unclear whether Myanmar had accepted the invitation but Thailand was eager for them to join.

 

Asked why Thailand decided to invite Myanmar despite concerns over the crackdown against the Rohingya and whether this issue was part of their deliberations, the official said: “That never came up in the discussions. We separated that issue (the Rohingya). We focus on training, on education, on military cooperation. That is our wish, to have Myanmar involved."

 

“That is politics. We are soldiers. This is a military exercise,” added the official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

 

The Myanmar military did not respond to several requests for comment.

 

When asked whether the U.S. military had attempted to apply pressure on Thailand not to invite Myanmar because of the international condemnation of its crackdown, the Pentagon declined to comment on internal deliberations.

    

Myanmar's military cracked down on Muslim Rohingya from Rakhine state following Rohingya militant attacks on an army base and police posts in August. The crackdown has caused around 650,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh in recent months.

 

The United States and the United Nations have described the campaign as ethnic cleansing of the stateless Rohingya people.

 

The Myanmar military has said its own internal investigation had exonerated security forces of all accusations of atrocities in Rakhine.  

 

But earlier this week, the United States imposed sanctions on 13 "serious human rights abusers and corrupt actors" including Myanmar general Maung Maung Soe, who oversaw the crackdown against the Rohingya.

 

Zachary Abuza, a professor at the U.S. National War College, said inviting Myanmar to the exercise was “outrageous” and sent the wrong message.

 

"To invite them after what the U.S. government has labelled ethnic cleansing, when the Treasury Department just yesterday designated the commander for these egregious violations of human rights, just seems wrong, and that is putting it too mildly," said Abuza, who focuses on Southeast Asia and security issues, including human rights.

 

In the 2017 Cobra Gold exercise, 29 nations either participated or observed the exercise, including Myanmar. It included about 3,600 U.S. personnel. Cobra Gold is an annual exercise in Thailand. The 2018 war games are expected to be held in February.

 

The United States and Thailand have carried out joint war games for decades, even though Bangkok's record on human rights and democracy has often been criticized in Washington.

 

The U.S.-Thai relationship cooled when the Thai military took power in a 2014 coup but has improved under President Donald Trump.

 

Two Reuters journalists were arrested in Myanmar on Dec. 12 and on Thursday appeared in court and have been remanded in custody.

 

Reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been in detention for nine days with no detail on where they are being held. They have not had access to visitors or lawyers.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-12-24

[ChrisY1]

 

Myanmar should be isolated with it's leaders to face genocide charges.  Aung San Suu Kyi included.

Myanmar and Thailand (Cambodia also), don't understand the wests insistence, that they have committed human rights abuses....so it's business as usual. 

 

 

[hansnl]

2 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

 

Myanmar should be isolated with it's leaders to face genocide charges.  Aung San Suu Kyi included.

Myanmar and Thailand (Cambodia also), don't understand the wests insistence, that they have committed human rights abuses....so it's business as usual. 

 

 

If the same measures and standards are meted out to Islamic countries I think 70% of those countries are doing the same to their minorities, islamic or otherwise.

I a still waiting on the first condemnation of Muslim countries.

Also, most reports of atrocities are based on muslim stories, and it is a fact of life those stories are sometimes, ehhhh, one sided?

Or dare I say fabricated, as in, ehhhh, lying?

[metisdead]

An off topic trolling post has been removed. 

[yellowboat]

2 hours ago, hansnl said:

If the same measures and standards are meted out to Islamic countries I think 70% of those countries are doing the same to their minorities, islamic or otherwise.

I a still waiting on the first condemnation of Muslim countries.

Also, most reports of atrocities are based on muslim stories, and it is a fact of life those stories are sometimes, ehhhh, one sided?

Or dare I say fabricated, as in, ehhhh, lying?

Really?  Like Malaysia? Like Indonesia?  Cambodia's Muslim minority, the Cham, ran from Vietnam.   A country they had to leave.  Please pick a specific country you have a problem with as opposed to saying all Muslim countries are the same, as they are not.  

[dave_boo]

15 hours ago, yellowboat said:

Really?  Like Malaysia? Like Indonesia?  Cambodia's Muslim minority, the Cham, ran from Vietnam.   A country they had to leave.  Please pick a specific country you have a problem with as opposed to saying all Muslim countries are the same, as they are not.  

Way to list the exceptions to prove the rule.

 

Iraq

Iran

Yemen

Saudi Arabia 

Syria

Egypt

Lebanon 

Pakistan 

 

Add those to the two you listed and we've exceeded the 70% claimed by the OP. Not the 100% you are claiming. 

[cooked]

Just to muddy the waters a bit, Bengalis have been invading the Chittagong Land tracts and driving out / killing ethnic groups there, just as they have been doing in the Rakhine. The 'Rohingyas', so called, speak the same dialect as the Chittagonians, which isn't the only evidence that that is where they came from, uninvited and never ready to integrate. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2013/06/bangladesh-indigenous-peoples-engulfed-chittagong-hill-tracts-land-conflict/ 

ARSA and ISIS have now called for a Jihad against Myanmar, they want to get their hands on the oil. The refugee camps have been training grounds since at least 1975. India doesn't want any 'Rohingya' refugees either.

Many, many more ethic Rakhine inhabitants have been killed by Muslims since 1942 than those that have been killed recently, but Myanmar isn't claiming a genocide has taken place. Same remarks apply for the three million Hindus slaughtered in 1971. It was never settled whether to call THAT a genocide or NOT. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Bangladesh_genocide

 

[tryasimight]

On 12/24/2017 at 1:35 PM, hansnl said:

If the same measures and standards are meted out to Islamic countries I think 70% of those countries are doing the same to their minorities, islamic or otherwise.

I a still waiting on the first condemnation of Muslim countries.

Also, most reports of atrocities are based on muslim stories, and it is a fact of life those stories are sometimes, ehhhh, one sided?

Or dare I say fabricated, as in, ehhhh, lying?

Everyone forgets that the Rohingya have lived there for quite a while and were tolerated. When they went full on crazy in the not so distant past the Burmese people fought back. What we are seeing is a result of Islamic violence , nothing more, nothing less and definitely not ethnic cleansing as such.

The Burmese people are a proud Buddhist nation (and when you talk to them they insist they are the only true Buddhists left....and after having lived and worked with them for an extended period I tend to agree).

China has a very big influence in Myanmar, they are investing heavily there,  and the USA would be well advised to realise this and try and get the Burmese on side...not off side.

 

If the USA play their cards right and they might even be able to shut off the supply of uranium from Myanmar to North Korea.

Seen the mine myself.