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Myanmar’s Sein to visit US amid growing violence against Rohingyas

Iran Press TV

Fri May 3, 2013 1:28PM GMT

Myanmar president plans to visit Washington to hold talks with his US counterpart, Barack Obama, whose administration is lending unprecedented support for the southeast Asian country.

The visit, which is scheduled to take place later in May, will make Thein Sein the first leader of Myanmar to travel to the US capital in the past five decades.

On Thursday, the Obama administration announced a decision to suspend most of its sanctions against Myanmar, which include visa restrictions for some Myanmar nationals.

Last year, Washington also lifted a set of sanctions against Myanmar that limited trade between the two countries, and removed Sein from its list of banned officials.

President Obama also paid a visit to Myanmar last November and praised the country, despite its failure to stop sectarian violence against its Muslim population.

The latest promotion of ties between the United States and Myanmar coincides with a new surge of violence by Buddhist extremists against Rohingya Muslims, who are not regarded as citizens by the Myanmar government.

In recent months, hundreds of Muslims have been killed and thousands more displaced as a result of the violence.

Described by the UN as one of the most persecuted minority groups in the world, Rohingya Muslims account for about five percent of Myanmar's population of nearly 60 million. They have been persecuted and faced torture, neglect, and repression since the country's independence in 1948.

On March 28, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said he had received reports that Myanmar’s soldiers and police sometimes stood by “while atrocities have been committed before their very eyes” by well-organized Buddhist mobs in the central city of Meiktila.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also called on Myanmar’s government to address the plight of the Rohingya Muslim population and to protect the community against extremists.

MRS/JR/SS