Myanmar won\\\'t succeed if Muslims are oppressed: Obama

KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 27 (agencies): US President Barack Obama said on Sunday that the rights of Myanmar's minority Muslim population were not being fully protected and warned that the Southeast Asian country would not succeed if Muslims there were oppressed.
On a visit to Malaysia, Obama praised political reforms under way in once-isolated Myanmar but said the danger of democratization was that it could unleash religious and ethnic conflicts and that such developments could move Myanmar in a bad direction.
"You have a Muslim minority (in Myanmar) … that the broader population has historically looked down upon and whose rights are not being fully protected," Obama told a townhall-style meeting of young leaders from across Southeast Asia. "Myanmar won't succeed if the Muslim population is oppressed."
Members of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority have been the victims of attacks and widespread abuse in recent years blamed by human rights groups and other observers on security forces and anti-Muslim mobs in the country's Rakhine state.
Meanwhile:President Barack Obama nudged Malaysia on Sunday over its controversial handling of dissent but made clear Washington intended to deepen its friendship with a country it considers vital to US objectives in the Asia-Pacific.
Obama also offered continued US support in the search for missing flight MH370 as he held talks with Prime Minister Najib Razak, after which the two leaders declared the start of a warmer new era in relations.
"Today across a whole range of areas-security, trade, and regional institutions-we are working more closely than ever before," Obama said during a joint press conference, calling Malaysia "central" to stability in Southeast Asia.
During a trip that started in Japan and South Korea and finishes in the Philippines on Tuesday, Obama has reinforced US security support for regional allies alarmed by China's claims to vast maritime expanses around the region.