US VP Pence tells Myanmar’s Suu Kyi persecution of Rohingya inexcusable

US Vice President Mike Pence has told Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi that the violence and persecution by her country’s military and vigilantes, that sent more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, was inexcusable. Pence told Suu Kyi in a meeting on Wednesday, on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore, that Washington was anxious to hear of progress in holding people accountable for the Rohingya crisis, Reuters said. Suu Kyi responded that people have different views. Pence also said that the US wanted to see a free and democratic press in Myanmar, and the jailing of two journalists last year was “deeply troubling” for millions of Americans. Two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were arrested in Yangon in December 2017, found guilty in September of breaching the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years in prison.