Responding to the appointment of Win Myint as the new President of Myanmar, James Gomez, Amnesty International’s Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said:

“The Myanmar authorities should use the appointment of a new President as an opportunity to step back from the brink. We’ve seen a dramatic deterioration in the human rights situation in the last year, most especially for the Rohingya community who have been targeted in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing involving crimes against humanity.

“While the military still wields considerable power, the civilian-led government most do more to end discrimination and ensure that perpetrators of human rights violations are held to account.”