Myanmar president says not preparing for 2015 polls

Myanmar president says not preparing for 2015 polls

* Thein Sein says doesn't object to Suu Kyi candidacy

* Says lawmakers must decide whether to amend constitution

* Says attacks on minority Muslims not ethnic cleansing

PARIS: Myanmar President Thein Sein is not preparing himself at the moment to contest the 2015 presidential election and has "no objections" to Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi running, he said in an interview aired on Friday.

Thein Sein was speaking to France 24 television after the former military leader had completed a visit to London and Paris as part of a tour aimed at securing Western aid to help his country, the former Burma, emerge from decades of dictatorship. "As of now, I have not prepared myself to run for the 2015 presidential election," he said, through an interpreter.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who visited the former military dictatorship last year, has pressed Thein Sein to ensure the constitution is changed to allow opposition leader Suu Kyi to contest the election. A year ago, Suu Kyi was feted at home and abroad, flush from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party's landslide wins in April 2012 by-elections, which swept her into parliament.

But to emerge as president after the election, Suu Kyi, 68, must convince the military-dominated parliament to amend the constitution, which now bars from the presidency anyone married to a foreigner or who has children who are foreign citizens. Suu Kyi and her late husband, British academic Michael Aris, had two children who are British.

Thein Sein said the constitution was amendable, but added it was up to lawmakers to decide on amendments and if needed the provisions required would have to be put to a referendum. "As far as her candidacy is concerned I have no objections," he said.

Western leaders have praised Thein Sein for ending Suu Kyi's house arrest and other reforms but want him to loosen the military's grip further.

Thein Sein said on Sunday that he had disbanded a security force accused of rights violations against the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State in the west of Myanmar. He dismissed accusations of ethnic cleansing. "This is not ethnic cleansing," he said. "Outside elements are just exaggerating and fabricating news. The government has been able to contain this communal violence and things have returned to normal."

He has already freed some political prisoners and earlier in the week he promised to free all those remaining by the end of this year, saying a special committee was tackling the backlog. Thein Sein told France 24 there were fewer than 100 political prisoners left in jail.

Meanwhile, Thailand's navy denied on Friday a Reuters report that its personnel were involved in a lucrative smuggling and trafficking network that exploits minority Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution and dire living conditions in Myanmar. The Reuters investigation, citing people smugglers and Rohingyas who made the journey, found that Thai naval security forces were involved in the smuggling of Rohingya Muslims. They have fled Myanmar in sharply growing numbers over the last year following outbreaks of religious violence at home.

The smuggling network, centred on the west coast of southern Thailand, transports thousands of Rohingya mainly into neighbouring Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country the Rohingya view as a haven from persecution. "There is no truth to the allegations," Wipan Chamachote, a spokesman for the Royal Thai Navy, told Reuters. "We've found no indication of abuse by our staff in regards to Rohingya that enter the country, nor has there been any financial transaction for the purposes of human trafficking." reuters

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