Major role for military in Myanmar government, says Thein Sein
Ahead of meeting with Obama, Myanmar's leader dismisses allegations that army took part in ethnic pogroms against Muslim minority
The military that ran Myanmar for decades will continue to play a major role in the country, according to the former general who has presided over the transformation of a nation that only three years ago was considered one of the world's most repressive.
The army has a proud history in Myanmar and "will always have a special place" in government, Myanmar's President Thein Sein said in an interview on Sunday, on the eve of a White House meeting with President Barack Obama.
Thein Sein dismissed as "pure fabrication" the allegation from human rights monitors that the army condones or even participates in ethnic pogroms against the nation's Muslim minority, including the ethnic Rohingya. The army "is more disciplined than normal citizens, because they have to abide by military rules", he said through an interpreter.
Thein Sein said it was mostly up to Myanmar's parliament to see through numerous reforms sought by the United States and other nervous backers of the experiment in democracy. For example, he said he had no direct say in, or independent opinion on, whether Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi should be eligible for the presidency in two years.
In the lengthy interview, Thein Sein made little attempt to promote a picture of vigorous reform in Myanmar, or to sell himself as the pivotal leader promoting democracy.
Continued economic sanctions "are an obstacle, and they indirectly hurt the Myanmar people", he said.
