Aung San Suu Kyi's campaign to convince the world that the Rohingya do not exist is going well. On Wednesday the EU said they agreed with her (two days later Britain voted to exit the EU), now Thailand is on-board. A group of plain clothes police and soldiers stopped a Rohingya Rights Activist from holding a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (presumably because the Rohingya do not exist). However, a correspondent for Voice of America (Americans do think the Rohingya exist) was there, here is the report:
BANGKOK— The sensitive issue of the treatment of Rohingya refugees in Thailand overshadowed the start of the visit of Myanmar’s de facto leader to neighboring Thailand on Thursday. As the jet carrying Myanmar State Counselor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi was en route to Suvarnabhumi Airport, activists in Bangkok were quickly muzzled by Thailand’s military government. A small group of police and soldiers, out of uniform, prevented a group from holding a full news conference at a space it had rented in the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand. “The concern is about ‘national security.’ This event doesn’t rise to that level,” Amy Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, told VOA at the event venue. “This is a violation of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.” Two activists advocating better treatment of the minority Rohingya in Myanmar read a brief open letter to Aung San Suu Kyi and explained they were prohibited by the junta from answering reporters’ questions. Leaving the stage the secretary general of the Rohingya Thailand Group, Hajee Ismail, added “I cannot speak now,” as he put his hands over his lips. “This is a big problem.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Get the
Private Tye Facebook & Twitter Feeds Archives
April 2017
Categories |