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China Confirms Economy Czar Going to Washington for Talks

China confirmed its economy czar will go to Washington for trade talks despite fears he might cancel after President Trump threatened to escalate a tariff war over Beijing's technology ambitions. The announcement suggests President Xi Jinping's government is putting its desire to end a conflict that has battered Chinese exporters ahead of the political need to look tough in the face of U.S. pressure. The decision to have Vice Premier Liu He, Xi's top economic adviser, take part in talks due to start Thursday might keep alive hopes the two biggest global economies could make peace as early as this week. The Trump administration is pressing Beijing to roll back plans for government-led development of Chinese global competitors in robotics, electric cars and other technologies. Washington, Europe, Japan and other trading partners say those violate China's market-opening commitments and are based in part on stolen technology.

Two Reuters journalists who were imprisoned for breaking Myanmar's Official Secrets Act over reporting on security forces' abuses of Rohingya Muslims were pardoned and released. The convictions of Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, had drawn condemnation from rights groups, Western governments and press associations, and the two journalists had garnered several awards and other honors. In April, they shared with their Reuters colleagues the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, one of journalism's highest honors. The two were freed after President Win Myint issued a blanket pardon for 6,520 prisoners, said Zaw Zaw, chief of Insein Prison in the country's largest city, Yangon. Myanmar's Supreme Court on April 23 had rejected the journalists' final appeal against their seven-year prison terms. Their convictions were related to reporting on security forces' abuses of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The reporters contended they were framed because of official displeasure over their reporting.

Democrats Set to Hold William Barr in Contempt Over Mueller Report

A House committee is poised to holdAttorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress — the opening salvo in what could be a lengthy, acrimonious court battle between House Democrats and President Trump's administration over special counsel Robert Mueller's report. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler scheduled a vote to hold Barr in contempt of Congress, citing the Justice Department's failure to provide the full text of Mueller's report by the Monday morning deadline. Nadler, D-N.Y., said Barr's failure to comply with a subpoena left them with "no choice but to initiate contempt proceedings." The movement to hold Barr in contempt reflects the deepening rift between Democrats and Barr, whom they accuse of spinning the results of Mueller's investigation to Trump's benefit. Barr, in a memo summarizing Mueller's investigation, said there was insufficient evidence that Trump obstructed justice — a conclusion Democrats fiercely dispute.

Another Recall of Blood Pressure Meds Due to Cancer Concerns

Yet another pharmaceutical company has recalled blood pressure medication over concerns that long-term use could increase cancer risks. Vivimed Life Sciences has recalledLosartan Potassium Tablets USP, distributed by New Jersey-based Heritage Pharmaceuticals, due to higher levels of a possible carcinogen than the Food and Drug Administration allows. Nineteen lots of the drug at the 25 mg, 50 mg and 100 mg doses have been called back because of elevated levels of an N-Nitroso-N-methyl-4-aminobutyric acid impurity, the FDA said. The FDA encourages all users of the medication to contact their medical providers before they stop taking the drug. If users have experienced any effects possibly related to taking the drug, they are encouraged to contact their doctor. Just last week, drug giant Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. joined the increasing number of companies taking the popular blood pressure and heart medicine off shelves over cancer concerns.

US Measles Count Soars to 764, Driven by NY Outbreaks

Five dozen more measles cases have been reported across the nation, an 8 percent increase over the prior week as the case total in the U.S.' worst outbreak in decades edges closer to a stunning 800, officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 764 cases had been reported as of last Thursday. It's the most in the U.S. since 1994, when 963 were reported, and has been fueled by outbreaks in New York. Another 41 new cases were reported in New York City, which now has more than 420 patients, and 11 new cases in New York's Rockland County, which took the dramatic step a few weeks ago of banning unvaccinated minors from indoor public places in an effort to control the spread. As of May 3, Rockland County had 214 confirmed measles cases connected to the current outbreak. Thus far, 23 states have reported cases.

Celebs Try to Out-Camp Each Other at Wild Met Gala

Cardi B swept by in a stunning red quilted dress accentuated with a matching sequin headpiece, feathers and a train that took up much of the pink carpet, Jared Leto was accompanied by his own (fake) head and Katy Perry came as a candled chandelier at the crazy, campy Met Gala. Lady Gaga used the pink carpet as a runway and a changing station and Tiffany Haddish brought fried chicken in a plastic bag as many of the A-list guests worked the camp theme to the max. That included Zendaya, whose Cinderella dress went aglow with the wave of a magic wand. She dropped one of her see-through slippers on the way up for the cocktail hour. Also princess, of the saucy variety: Nicki Minaj in a short pink dress with yards and yards to her train, the last star to walk the carpet. The 71st annual gala hit a campy high point early.

It's a baby boom. Just hours after the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's son, Amy Schumer and husband Chris Fischer announced a new arrival of their own. "10:55 pm last night. Our royal baby was born," Schumer captioned a post on Instagram. Schumer first revealed her pregnancy last October, eight months after marrying Fischer. The couple, much like Prince Harry and Meghan, have not yet revealed the name of their new arrival.</s>YANGON (Reuters) - Two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar after they were convicted of breaking the Official Secrets Act walked free from prison on Tuesday after more than 500 days behind bars.

Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, had been convicted in September and sentenced to seven years in jail in a case that raised questions about Myanmar’s progress towards democracy and sparked an outcry from diplomats and human rights advocates.

They were released under a presidential amnesty for 6,520 prisoners. President Win Myint has pardoned thousands of other prisoners in mass amnesties since last month.

It is customary in Myanmar for authorities to free prisoners across the country around the time of the traditional New Year, which began on April 17.

Reuters has said the two men did not commit any crime and had called for their release.

Swamped by media and well-wishers as they walked through the gates of Insein Prison, on the outskirts of Yangon, a grinning Wa Lone gave a thumbs up and said he was grateful for the international efforts to secure their freedom.

“I’m really happy and excited to see my family and my colleagues. I can’t wait to go to my newsroom,” he said.

Kyaw Soe Oo smiled and waved to reporters.

The two were then driven away by Reuters colleagues and reunited with their wives and children.

Before their arrest in December 2017, they had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys by security forces and Buddhist civilians in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State during an army crackdown that began in August 2017.

The operation sent more than 730,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, according to U.N. estimates.

The report the two men authored, featuring testimony from perpetrators, witnesses and families of the victims, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in May, adding to a number of accolades received by the pair for their journalism. (reut.rs/2KFTSgQ) (reut.rs/2M5benE)

Government spokesman Zaw Htay said the decision to release the two was made after the families wrote to government leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

“We took the letters into consideration and released them in the interest of the country,” Zaw Htay told reporters.

Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler welcomed the news.

“We are enormously pleased that Myanmar has released our courageous reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. Since their arrests 511 days ago, they have become symbols of the importance of press freedom around the world. We welcome their return,” Adler said.

Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo celebrate with their children after being freed from prison, after receiving a presidential pardon in Yangon, Myanmar, May 7, 2019. REUTERS/Ann Wang/Pool

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was relieved to learn of the release, a spokesman said. The United Nations in Myanmar said it saw the release as a sign of the government’s commitment to the transition to democracy.

The U.S. Embassy also welcomed the release and said it was glad the two could return to their families.

‘DIALOGUE WORKS’

Myanmar’s Supreme Court had rejected the journalists’ final appeal in April. They had petitioned the top court, citing evidence of a police set-up and lack of proof of a crime, after the Yangon High Court dismissed an earlier appeal in January.

The reporters’ wives wrote a letter to the government in April pleading for a pardon, not, they said, because their husbands had done anything wrong, but because it would allow them to be released from prison and reunited with their families.

The Reuters journalists were released at the prison to representatives of Reuters and to Lord Ara Darzi, a British surgeon and health care expert who has served as a member of an advisory group to Myanmar’s government on reforms in Rakhine State.

“This outcome shows that dialogue works, even in the most difficult of circumstances,” Darzi said in a statement.

Darzi said discussions about the pardon for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had involved the Myanmar government, Reuters, the United Nations and representatives of other governments.

He said the government, led by Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, could only consider releasing the pair after the Supreme Court had rejected their final appeal.

Slideshow (24 Images)

“I’m very grateful to the president, the state counselor (Suu Kyi) and also the cabinet, for making that happen.”

Darzi has been a member of an advisory commission that was formed in 2016 to see through the advice from a panel headed by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan on solving the long-running conflict in Rakhine.</s>Two Reuters journalists imprisoned in Myanmar for reporting on a military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims have been released after spending more than 500 days behind bars.

Reporters Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, walked free Tuesday morning after a presidential pardon, according to Reuters.

A post on the news agency’s Twitter account shows the Burmese journalists leaving Yangon’s infamous Insein Prison.

The two men were arrested in December 2017 and later sentenced to seven years in prison for possessing “state secrets” in what was widely believed to be a set-up.

The journalists had been reporting on violence in the country’s western Rakhine State, where Myanamr’s state security forces have been accused of ethnic cleansing and possible genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Reuters’ investigation, published in February 2018, documented the slaughter and mass burial of 10 Rohingya men in the village of Inn Din.

Their case caused international outrage and brought heavy criticism to the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate who leads Myanmar’s civilian government.

In late April, Myanmar’s Supreme Court rejected the final appeal to release the men and decided to uphold their prison sentences.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were recently recognized as co-winners of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, and along with several other journalists, they were named as TIME’s Person of the Year in 2018.</s>YANGON (Reuters) - Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were freed on Tuesday months after being sentenced to seven years in jail on convictions under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act.

The two were arrested in December 2017 while working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys by security forces and Buddhist civilians in western Myanmar's Rakhine State. (here)

The conviction of Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, in September last year sparked an outcry from diplomats and press freedom advocates, who said the jailing of two young reporters raised questions about Myanmar's progress toward democracy. (here)

During more than 500 days behind bars, their reporting on a military crackdown in Rakhine State was recognized with international awards and they were named by Time magazine as its “Person of the Year” alongside other journalists last year.

Here are some key facts about the two journalists, who had been detained since Dec. 12, 2017:

- Wa Lone, 33, was born to a rice farming family in Kin Pyit, a village of fewer than 500 people in the dry plains of central Myanmar’s Sagaing region.

- In his 20s, Wa Lone moved to Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, and took up journalism. He worked as a reporter for outlets including the Myanmar Times, an English-language newspaper where he met his future wife, Pan Ei Mon. He joined Reuters in 2016 and married Pan Ei Mon the same year.

- Outside of his day job, Wa Lone did regular charity work. He co-founded the Third Story Project, a charitable foundation that produces and distributes books that aim to promote tolerance between Myanmar’s different ethnic groups. He authored some of the books himself, including Jay Jay the Journalist, which he wrote while incarcerated at Yangon’s Insein prison.

- Months after Wa Lone joined Reuters, an insurgent group from the Rohingya Muslim minority announced itself with attacks on police posts in the western state of Rakhine. Wa Lone was central to Reuters’ coverage of the conflict that followed.

- Weeks after her husband’s arrest, Pan Ei Mon discovered she was pregnant with their first child. Their baby girl, Thet Htar Angel, was born on Aug. 10, 2018, in a Yangon hospital. Wa Lone has only seen his daughter a handful of times on her visits to prison.

- Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, comes from Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, and was born to a Buddhist family from the Rakhine ethnic group that makes up the majority in the state.

- His home state has been beset by bursts of ethnic violence since 2012, but friends said Kyaw Soe Oo stayed out of the conflict, instead developing a love of books and composing poetry.

- Kyaw Soe Oo begun working as a journalist and was involved in setting up Root Investigative Agency, an outlet focused on news in Rakhine.

- He is married to Chit Su Win, who once worked for his family in Sittwe. Their daughter, Moe Thin Wai Zan, is three years old.

- After the north of Rakhine State erupted in violence in 2017, Kyaw Soe Oo started working for Reuters, where he and Wa Lone uncovered a massacre of Rohingya men and boys in the village of Inn Din. The pair were awarded a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in April.</s>YANGON, Myanmar – Two Reuters journalists who were imprisoned for breaking Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act over reporting on security forces’ abuses of Rohingya Muslims were pardoned and released Tuesday, the prison chief and witnesses said.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were freed after President Win Myint issued a blanket pardon for 6,520 prisoners, said Zaw Zaw, chief of Yangon’s Insein Prison.

Myanmar’s Supreme Court on April 23 rejected the journalists’ final appeal against their seven-year prison terms. Their convictions were related to reporting on security forces’ abuses of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The reporters and their supporters had said they were framed because of official displeasure over their reporting.

“We are enormously pleased that Myanmar has released our courageous reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo,” said a statement issued by Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler. “Since their arrests 511 days ago, they have become symbols of the importance of press freedom around the world. We welcome their return.”

Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, last month shared with their Reuters colleagues the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, one of journalism’s highest honors.

Myanmar’s military launched a brutal counterinsurgency campaign in the western state of Rakhine in 2017, driving more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.

The Reuters reporters had worked on an investigation of the killings of 10 Rohingya villagers in Inn Din village, for which the government last year said seven soldiers were sentenced to up 10 years in prison with hard labor.

The reporters were arrested in December 2017 and sentenced last September after being accused of illegally possessing official documents, a violation of the colonial-era Official Secrets Act.

Family members of the two freed men were elated.

Chit Su Win, the wife of Kyaw Soe Oo, said she was waiting at home with their child to be reunited with her husband.

She said she doesn’t know how to express her feelings, but “Now the three of us can hug each other and we are so happy for that.”

Thura Aung, the brother of Wa Lone said, “We’re so happy that they got released today. We heard that they would be on the amnesty list. Now it is actually happening, I am so glad for that.”

The United Nations office in Myanmar said it welcomed the release of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

“The U.N. in Myanmar considers the release of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo a step toward improving the freedom of the press and a sign of Government’s commitment to Myanmar’s transition to democracy,” it said in an emailed statement.</s>How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village

On 2 September, Buddhist villagers and Myanmar troops killed 10 Rohingya men in Myanmar's restive Rakhine state. Reuters uncovered the massacre and has pieced together how it unfolded. During the reporting of this article, two Reuters journalists were arrested by Myanmar police.

Inn Din, Myanmar: Bound together, the 10 Rohingya Muslim captives watched their Buddhist neighbors dig a shallow grave. Soon afterwards, on the morning of 2 September, all 10 lay dead. At least two were hacked to death by Buddhist villagers. The rest were shot by Myanmar troops, two of the gravediggers said.

“One grave for 10 people,” said Soe Chay, 55, a retired soldier from Inn Din’s Rakhine Buddhist community who said he helped dig the pit and saw the killings. The soldiers shot each man two or three times, he said. “When they were being buried, some were still making noises. Others were already dead.”

The Rohingya accuse the army of arson, rapes and killings aimed at rubbing them out of existence in this mainly Buddhist nation of 53 million. The United Nations has said the army may have committed genocide; the United States has called the action ethnic cleansing. Myanmar says its “clearance operation” is a legitimate response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents.

Rohingya trace their presence in Rakhine back centuries. But most Burmese consider them to be unwanted immigrants from Bangladesh; the army refers to the Rohingya as “Bengalis”. In recent years, sectarian tensions have risen and the government has confined more than 100,000 Rohingya in camps where they have limited access to food, medicine and education.

Reuters has pieced together what happened in Inn Din in the days leading up to the killing of the 10 Rohingya — eight men and two high school students in their late teens.

Until now, accounts of the violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine state have been provided only by its victims. The Reuters reconstruction draws, for the first time, on interviews with Buddhist villagers who confessed to torching Rohingya homes, burying bodies and killing Muslims.

This account also marks the first time soldiers and paramilitary police have been implicated by testimony from security personnel themselves. Members of the paramilitary police gave Reuters insider descriptions of the operation to drive out the Rohingya from Inn Din, confirming that the military played the lead role in the campaign.

The slain men’s families, now sheltering in Bangladesh refugee camps, identified the victims through photographs shown to them by Reuters. The dead men were fishermen, shopkeepers, the two teenage students and an Islamic teacher.

Three photographs, provided to Reuters by a Buddhist village elder, capture key moments in the massacre at Inn Din, from the Rohingya men’s detention by soldiers in the early evening of 1 September to their execution shortly after 10 am on 2 September. Two photos — one taken the first day, the other on the day of the killings — show the 10 captives lined up in a row, kneeling. The final photograph shows the men’s bloodied bodies piled in the shallow grave.

The Reuters investigation of the Inn Din massacre was what prompted Myanmar police authorities to arrest two of the news agency’s reporters. The reporters, Burmese citizens Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were detained on 12 December for allegedly obtaining confidential documents relating to Rakhine.

Then, on 10 January, the military issued a statement that confirmed portions of what Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe Oo and their colleagues were preparing to report, acknowledging that 10 Rohingya men were massacred in the village. It confirmed that Buddhist villagers attacked some of the men with swords and soldiers shot the others dead.

The slain villagers included fishermen, an Islamic teacher and two high school students.

Abul Hashim, 25: One of the wealthier villagers in the west hamlet of Inn Din — a neighborhood known to the Rohingya as Fosinpara - Abul Hashim ran a store selling machine parts and fishing nets and also stored rice for a nongovernmental organization. He owned a 3-acre plot of trees in the hills near Inn Din that were used as firewood and as construction material. He also had 16 buffaloes, which were left behind. “I can’t think why these men were taken. They were all good men,” said his wife of five years Hasina Khatun. They have three children together, including Abdu Majid, born in November in Tenkhali refugee camp in Bangladesh.

Abdul Malik, 30: A religious teacher or mullah, he was made the imam at the west hamlet’s mosque in his early 20s in recognition of his teaching ability, according to several residents. The mosque was an old building in the center of the hamlet, but in recent years villagers said they were restricted from using loudspeakers to announce the call to prayer. In addition to teaching, the father of five children ran a small stall where he served tea from a flask, and sold kerosene to fishermen, according to his wife, Marjan, 25. Some villagers remember the stall as a place men would gather to share local news and gossip.

Nur Mohammed, 29: He was known by the affectionate nickname “Bangu.” He sold fish and had a small rice paddy field and would grow vegetables and beans in a small garden, according to his wife, Rehana Khatun. “He was only interested in looking after his family. He was hardworking and eager to improve our lot by farming and selling fish,” she recalled.

Rashid Ahmed, 18: He was a bright student at Inn Din’s high school, excelling in Burmese and English, according to his parents, father Abdu Shakur and mother Subiya Hatu. His father said he had hoped Rashid Ahmed would go on to become the first person in the family to receive a higher education. “His report card was good. I looked after everything so that he could concentrate on his studies,” said Abdu Shakur, 50.

Habizu, 40: He sold fish and kept a small rice field and 15 goats. His wife, Shuna Khatu, 30, is now living in the Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh, where she said she has dreamt of Habizu’s return. She gave birth to their third child, baby boy Mohammed Sadek, after she arrived in Bangladesh. Habizu was working and saving toward buying a cow, Shuna Khatu said, and he hoped that he could provide for his children so that they could be educated.

Abulu, 17: A student who was about to go into his final year at Inn Din’s high school before violence broke out in October 2016, disrupting daily life across northern Rakhine state. The student, whose full name was Abul Hashim, would go fishing with a net in a pond near their house in the west hamlet, said his mother, Nurjan, 40. He was planning to open up a pharmacy in Inn Din after he finished school, she said. “He was a good boy, always polite,” Nurjan said, breaking into a smile as she recalled an exception: “He liked meat, but he didn’t like dried fish. Whenever I prepared dried fish, he would run off and have dinner that night at a relative’s house."

Shaker Ahmed, 45: He would make about 5,000 kyat each day selling fish, said his wife, Rahama Khatun, 35. “That was good for us. We were well off even with nine kids,” she said. His son and ninth child, Sadikur Rahman, was born in November, after Rahama Khatun arrived at the Kutapalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. “When the kids say where is Dad, I don’t know how to reply,” she said. “Now, I’m feeling very scared. It’s difficult for me to manage everything with nine kids and my husband is not here to help.”

Abdul Majid, 45: He ran a small shop selling, among other goods, areca nut wrapped in betel leaves. His wife, Amina Khatun, 40, is now staying in the Tenkhali refugee camp in Bangladesh with their eight children, aged from 1 to 19. "We had to leave six cattle and 3 acres of land, our house and all our belongings," she said. "It was all lost. I saw it myself — it was burned when we came back to the shore."

Shoket Ullah, 35: He moved to the west hamlet three years ago from Inn Din main village to live with his in-laws after he married his wife, Settara. He was a fisherman and also collected firewood to make extra cash. He was partially deaf since childhood, according to fellow west hamlet residents.

Dil Mohammed, 35: He was widely known in Inn Din as “Dilu," and made a living buying the catch from fishermen who went out into the Bay of Bengal and selling it in Inn Din’s market. He’s known as a sickly man with gastric problems. His wife and 15-year-old son now live in the Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh, according to fellow former Inn Din residents.

The statement of the Myanmar government coincided with an application to the court by prosecutors to charge Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo under the country’s Official Secrets Act, which dates back to the time of colonial British rule. The charges carry a maximum 14-year prison sentence.

But the military’s version of events is contradicted in important respects by accounts given to Reuters by Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim witnesses. The military said the 10 men belonged to a group of 200 “terrorists” that attacked security forces. Soldiers decided to kill the men, the army said, because intense fighting in the area made it impossible to transfer them to police custody. The army said it would take action against those involved.

Buddhist villagers interviewed for this article reported no attack by a large number of insurgents on security forces in Inn Din. And Rohingya witnesses told Reuters that soldiers plucked the 10 from among hundreds of men, women and children who had sought safety on a nearby beach.

Scores of interviews with Rakhine Buddhist villagers, soldiers, paramilitary police, Rohingya Muslims and local administrators further revealed:
• The military and paramilitary police organised Buddhist residents of Inn Din and at least two other villages to torch Rohingya homes, more than a dozen Buddhist villagers said. Eleven Buddhist villagers said Buddhists committed acts of violence, including killings. The government and army have repeatedly blamed Rohingya insurgents for burning villages and homes.
• An order to “clear” Inn Din’s Rohingya hamlets was passed down the command chain from the military, said three paramilitary police officers speaking on condition of anonymity and a fourth police officer at an intelligence unit in the regional capital Sittwe. Security forces wore civilian clothes to avoid detection during raids, one of the paramilitary police officers said.
• Some members of the paramilitary police looted Rohingya property, including cows and motorcycles, in order to sell it, according to village administrator Maung Thein Chay and one of the paramilitary police officers.
• Operations in Inn Din were led by the army’s 33rd Light Infantry Division, supported by the paramilitary 8th Security Police Battalion, according to four police officers, all of them members of the battalion.

Michael G. Karnavas, a US lawyer based in The Hague who has worked on cases at international criminal tribunals, said evidence that the military had organised Buddhist civilians to commit violence against Rohingya “would be the closest thing to a smoking gun in establishing not just intent, but even specific genocidal intent, since the attacks seem designed to destroy the Rohingya or at least a significant part of them”.

Evidence of the execution of men in government custody also could be used to build a case of crimes against humanity against military commanders, Karnavas said, if it could be shown that it was part of a “widespread or systematic” campaign targeting the Rohingya population. Kevin Jon Heller, a University of London law professor who served as a legal associate for convicted war criminal and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, said an order to clear villages by military command was “unequivocally the crime against humanity of forcible transfer”.

In December, the United States imposed sanctions on the army officer who had been in charge of Western Command troops in Rakhine, Major General Maung Maung Soe. So far, however, Myanmar has not faced international sanctions over the violence. Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has disappointed many former supporters in the West by not speaking out against the army’s actions. They had hoped the election of her National League for Democracy party in 2015 would bring democratic reform and an opening of the country. Instead, critics say, Suu Kyi is in thrall to the generals who freed her from house arrest in 2010.

Asked about the evidence Reuters has uncovered about the massacre, government spokesman Zaw Htay said, “We are not denying the allegations about violations of human rights. And we are not giving blanket denials.” If there was “strong and reliable primary evidence” of abuses, the government would investigate, he said. “And then if we found the evidence is true and the violations are there, we will take the necessary action according to our existing law.”

When told that paramilitary police officers had said they received orders to “clear” Inn Din’s Rohingya hamlets, he replied, “We have to verify. We have to ask the Ministry of Home Affairs and Myanmar police forces.” Asked about the allegations of looting by paramilitary police officers, he said the police would investigate.

He expressed surprise when told that Buddhist villagers had confessed to burning Rohingya homes, then added, “We recognise that many, many different allegations are there, but we need to verify who did it. It is very difficult in the current situation.”

Zaw Htay defended the military operation in Rakhine. “The international community needs to understand who did the first terrorist attacks. If that kind of terrorist attack took place in European countries, in the United States, in London, New York, Washington, what would the media say?”

Inn Din lies between the Mayu mountain range and the Bay of Bengal, about 50 kilometres north of Rakhine’s state capital Sittwe. The settlement is made up of a scattering of hamlets around a school, clinic and Buddhist monastery. Buddhist homes cluster in the northern part of the village. For many years there had been tensions between the Buddhists and their Muslim neighbors, who accounted for almost 90 percent of the roughly 7,000 people in the village. But the two communities had managed to co-exist, fishing the coastal waters and cultivating rice in the paddies.

In October 2016, Rohingya militants attacked three police posts in northern Rakhine — the beginning of a new insurgency. After the attacks, Rohingya in Inn Din said many Buddhists stopped hiring them as farmhands and home help. The Buddhists said the Rohingya stopped showing up for work.

On August 25, 2017, the rebels struck again, hitting 30 police posts and an army base. The closest attack was just 4 kilometres to the north. In Inn Din, several hundred fearful Buddhists took refuge in the monastery in the center of the village, more than a dozen of their number said. Inn Din’s Buddhist night watchman San Thein, 36, said Buddhist villagers feared being “swallowed up” by their Muslim neighbors. A Buddhist elder said all Rohingya, “including children,” were part of the insurgency and therefore “terrorists”.

On August 27, about 80 troops from Myanmar’s 33rd Light Infantry Division arrived in Inn Din, nine Buddhist villagers said. Two paramilitary police officers and Soe Chay, the retired soldier, said the troops belonged to the 11th infantry regiment of this division. The army officer in charge told villagers they must cook for the soldiers and act as lookouts at night, Soe Chay said. The officer promised his troops would protect Buddhist villagers from their Rohingya neighbors. Five Buddhist villagers said the officer told them they could volunteer to join security operations. Young volunteers would need their parents’ permission to join the troops, however.

The army found willing participants among Inn Din’s Buddhist “security group,” nine members of the organization and two other villagers said. This informal militia was formed after violence broke out in 2012 between Rakhine’s Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, sparked by reports of the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men. Myanmar media reported at the time that the three were sentenced to death by a district court.

Inn Din’s security group built watch huts around the Buddhist part of the village, and its members took turns to stand guard. Its ranks included Buddhist firefighters, school teachers, students and unemployed young men. They were useful to the military because they knew the local geography, said Inn Din’s Buddhist administrator, Maung Thein Chay.

Most of the group’s 80 to 100 men armed themselves with machetes and sticks. They also had a handful of guns, according to one member. Some wore green fatigue-style clothing they called “militia suits”.

In the days that followed the 33rd Light Infantry’s arrival, soldiers, police and Buddhist villagers burned most of the homes of Inn Din’s Rohingya Muslims, a dozen Buddhist residents said.

Two of the paramilitary police officers, both members of the 8th Security Police Battalion, said their battalion raided Rohingya hamlets with soldiers from the newly arrived 33rd Light Infantry. One of the police officers said he received verbal orders from his commander to “go and clear” areas where Rohingya lived, which he took to mean to burn them.

The second police officer described taking part in several raids on villages north of Inn Din. The raids involved at least 20 soldiers and between five and seven police, he said. A military captain or major led the soldiers, while a police captain oversaw the police team. The purpose of the raids was to deter the Rohingya from returning.

“If they have a place to live, if they have food to eat, they can carry out more attacks,” he said. “That’s why we burned their houses, mainly for security reasons.”

Soldiers and paramilitary police wore civilian shirts and shorts to blend in with the villagers, according to the second police officer and Inn Din’s Buddhist administrator, Maung Thein Chay. If the media identified the involvement of security personnel, the police officer explained, “we would have very big problems.”

A police spokesman, Colonel Myo Thu Soe, said he knew of no instances of security forces torching villages or wearing civilian clothing. Nor was there any order to “go and clear” or “set fire” to villages. “This is very much impossible,” he told Reuters. “If there are things like that, it should be reported officially, and it has to be investigated officially.”

“As you’ve told me about these matters now, we will scrutinize and check back,” he added. “What I want to say for now is that as for the security forces, there are orders and instructions and step-by-step management, and they have to follow them. So, I don’t think these things happened.”

The army did not respond to a request for comment.

A medical assistant at the Inn Din village clinic, Aung Myat Tun, 20, said he took part in several raids. “Muslim houses were easy to burn because of the thatched roofs. You just light the edge of the roof,” he said. “The village elders put monks’ robes on the end of sticks to make the torches and soaked them with kerosene. We couldn’t bring phones. The police said they will shoot and kill us if they see any of us taking photos.”

The night watchman San Thein, a leading member of the village security group, said troops first swept through the Muslim hamlets. Then, he said, the military sent in Buddhist villagers to burn the houses.

“We got the kerosene for free from the village market after the kalars ran away”, he said, using a Burmese slur for people from South Asia.

A Rakhine Buddhist youth said he thought he heard the sound of a child inside one Rohingya home that was burned. A second villager said he participated in burning a Rohingya home that was occupied.

Soe Chay, the retired soldier who was to dig the grave for the 10 Rohingya men, said he participated in one killing. He told Reuters that troops discovered three Rohingya men and a woman hiding beside a haystack in Inn Din on 28 August. One of the men had a smartphone that could be used to take incriminating pictures.

The soldiers told Soe Chay to “do whatever you want to them,” he said. They pointed out the man with the phone and told him to stand up. “I started hacking him with a sword, and a soldier shot him when he fell down.”

Similar violence was playing out across a large part of northern Rakhine, dozens of Buddhist and Rohingya residents said.

Data from the UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme shows scores of Rohingya villages in Rakhine state burned in an area stretching 110 kilometres. New York-based Human Rights Watch says more than 350 villages were torched over the three months from 25 August, according to an analysis of satellite imagery.

In the village of Laungdon, some 65 kilometres north of Inn Din, Thar Nge, 38, said he was asked by police and local officials to join a Buddhist security group. “The army invited us to burn the kalar village at Hpaw Ti Kaung,” he said, adding that four villagers and nearly 20 soldiers and police were involved in the operation. “Police shot inside the village so all the villagers fled and then we set fire to it. Their village was burned because police believed the villagers supported Rohingya militants – that’s why they cleaned it with fire.”

A Buddhist student from Ta Man Tha village, 15 kilometres north of Laungdon, said he too participated in the burning of Rohingya homes. An army officer sought 30 volunteers to burn “kalar” villages, said the student. Nearly 50 volunteered and gathered fuel from motorbikes and from a market.

“They separated us into several groups. We were not allowed to enter the village directly. We had to surround it and approach the village that way. The army would shoot gunfire ahead of us and then the army asked us to enter,” he said.

After the Rohingya had fled Inn Din, Buddhist villagers took their property, including chickens and goats, Buddhist residents told Reuters. But the most valuable goods, mostly motorcycles and cattle, were collected by members of the 8th Security Police Battalion and sold, said the first police officer and Inn Din village administrator Maung Thein Chay. Maung Thein Chay said the commander of the 8th Battalion, Thant Zin Oo, struck a deal with Buddhist businessmen from other parts of Rakhine state and sold them cattle. The police officer said he had stolen four cows from Rohingya villagers, only for Thant Zin Oo to snatch them away.

Reached by phone, Thant Zin Oo did not comment. Colonel Myo Thu Soe, the police spokesman, said the police would investigate the allegations of looting.

By 1 September, several hundred Rohingya from Inn Din were sheltering at a makeshift camp on a nearby beach. They erected tarpaulin shelters to shield themselves from heavy rain.

Among this group were the 10 Rohingya men who would be killed the next morning. Reuters has identified all of the 10 by speaking to witnesses among Inn Din’s Buddhist community and Rohingya relatives and witnesses tracked down in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Five of the men, Dil Mohammed, 35, Nur Mohammed, 29, Shoket Ullah, 35, Habizu, 40, and Shaker Ahmed, 45, were fishermen or fish sellers. The wealthiest of the group, Abul Hashim, 25, ran a store selling nets and machine parts to fishermen and farmers. Abdul Majid, a 45-year-old father of eight, ran a small shop selling areca nut wrapped in betel leaves, commonly chewed like tobacco. Abulu, 17, and Rashid Ahmed, 18, were high school students. Abdul Malik, 30, was an Islamic teacher.

Inn Din lies between the Mayu mountain range and the Bay of Bengal, about 30 miles (50 km) north of state capital Sittwe. It is made up of hamlets around a school, clinic and Buddhist monastery. For years, there had been tensions between the Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims. The Rohingya accounted for almost 90 percent of the roughly 7,000 villagers. On Aug. 25, Rohingya insurgents attacked 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine. Several hundred of Inn Din’s Buddhist villagers took refuge in the monastery.

About 80 soldiers arrived in Inn Din on 27 August. The army officer in charge told Buddhist villagers they could volunteer to join security operations, five of the villagers said. In the days that followed, soldiers, paramilitary police and Buddhist villagers burned most of the homes of Inn Din’s Rohingya Muslims, a dozen Buddhist residents said. Buddhist homes remained intact.

Muslims of the west hamlet, which was where the 10 victims lived, took refuge in the mountains in the east, said more than a dozen of the hamlet’s former residents now in Bangladesh camps.

Running out of supplies in the hills, several hundred Rohingya came down to the beach, including the 10 men who would be slain, family members and neighbours of the men said. They planned to set off in the coming days toward Bangladesh. A group of soldiers and armed Rakhine Buddhists arrived. The soldiers picked out 10 men and said they were taking them away for a meeting, Rohingya witnesses said.

The 10 men were photographed near the village school building after 5 pm. They were kneeling in a line with their hands on their heads. Most of them had been stripped to the waist. Later they were taken into the school building, given fresh shirts and fed, according to Buddhist witnesses.

In the morning, the men were taken out and photographed on scrub land near a graveyard for Buddhist villagers. Three Buddhist witnesses said they watched from a hut as soldiers led the 10 Rohingya captives up a hill towards the site of their deaths.

Myanmar’s military acknowledged that 10 Rohingya men were massacred in the village. They confirmed that Buddhist villagers attacked some of the men with swords and soldiers shot the others dead.

According to the statement released by the army on 10 January, security forces had gone to a coastal area where they “were attacked by about 200 Bengalis with sticks and swords”. The statement said that “as the security forces opened fire into the sky, the Bengalis dispersed and ran away. Ten of them were arrested”.

Three Buddhist and more than a dozen Rohingya witnesses contradict this version of events. Their accounts differ from one another in some details. The Buddhists spoke of a confrontation between a small group of Rohingya men and some soldiers near the beach. But there is unanimity on a crucial point: None said the military had come under a large-scale attack in Inn Din.

Government spokesman Zaw Htay referred Reuters to the army’s statement of Jan. 10 and declined to elaborate further. The army did not respond to a request for comment.

The Rohingya witnesses, who were on or near the beach, said Islamic teacher Abdul Malik had gone back to his hamlet with his sons to collect food and bamboo for shelter. When he returned, a group of at least seven soldiers and armed Buddhist villagers were following him, these witnesses said. Abdul Malik walked towards the watching Rohingya Muslims unsteadily, with blood dripping from his head. Some witnesses said they had seen one of the armed men strike the back of Abdul Malik’s head with a knife.

Then the military beckoned with their guns to the crowd of roughly 300 Rohingya to assemble in the paddies, these witnesses said. The soldiers and the Rohingya, hailing from different parts of Myanmar, spoke different languages. Educated villagers translated for their fellow Rohingya.

“I could not hear much, but they pointed toward my husband and some other men to get up and come forward,” said Rehana Khatun, 22, the wife of Nur Mohammed, one of the 10 who were later slain. “We heard they wanted the men for a meeting. The military asked the rest of us to return to the beach.”

Soldiers held and questioned the 10 men in a building at Inn Din’s school for a night, the military said. Rashid Ahmed and Abulu had studied there alongside Rakhine Buddhist students until the attacks by Rohingya rebels in October 2016. Schools were shut temporarily, disrupting the pair’s final year.

“I just remember him sitting there and studying, and it was always amazing to me because I am not educated,” said Rashid Ahmed’s father, farmer Abdu Shakur, 50. “I would look at him reading. He would be the first one in the family to be educated.”

A photograph, taken on the evening the men were detained, shows the two Rohingya students and the eight older men kneeling on a path beside the village clinic, most of them shirtless. They were stripped when first detained, a dozen Rohingya witnesses said. It isn’t clear why. That evening, Buddhist villagers said, the men were “treated” to a last meal of beef. They were provided with fresh clothing.

On 2 September, the men were taken to scrubland north of the village, near a graveyard for Buddhist residents, six Buddhist villagers said. The spot is backed by a hill crested with trees. There, on their knees, the 10 were photographed again and questioned by security personnel about the disappearance of a local Buddhist farmer named Maung Ni, according to a Rakhine elder who said he witnessed the interrogation.

Reuters was not able to establish what happened to Maung Ni. According to Buddhist neighbors, the farmer went missing after leaving home early on 25 August to tend his cattle. Several Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya villagers told Reuters they believed he had been killed, but they knew of no evidence connecting any of the 10 men to his disappearance. The army said in its 10 January statement that “Bengali terrorists” had killed Maung Ni, but did not identify the perpetrators.

Two of the men pictured behind the Rohingya prisoners in the photograph taken on the morning of 2 September belong to the 8th Security Police Battalion. Reuters confirmed the identities of the two men from their Facebook pages and by visiting them in person.

One of the two officers, Aung Min, a police recruit from Yangon, stands directly behind the captives. He looks at the camera as he holds a weapon. The other officer, police Captain Moe Yan Naing, is the figure on the top right. He walks with his rifle over his shoulder.

The day after the two Reuters reporters were arrested in December, Myanmar’s government also announced that Moe Yan Naing had been arrested and was being investigated under the 1923 Official Secrets Act.

Aung Min, who is not facing legal action, declined to speak to Reuters.

Three Buddhist youths said they watched from a hut as the 10 Rohingya captives were led up a hill by soldiers towards the site of their deaths.

One of the gravediggers, retired soldier Soe Chay, said Maung Ni’s sons were invited by the army officer in charge of the squad to strike the first blows.

The first son beheaded the Islamic teacher, Abdul Malik, according to Soe Chay. The second son hacked another of the men in the neck.

“After the brothers sliced them both with swords, the squad fired with guns. Two to three shots to one person,” said Soe Chay. A second gravedigger, who declined to be identified, confirmed that soldiers had shot some of the men.

In its 10 January statement, the military said the two brothers and a third villager had “cut the Bengali terrorists” with swords and then, in the chaos, four members of the security forces had shot the captives. “Action will be taken against the villagers who participated in the case and the members of security forces who broke the Rules of Engagement under the law,” the statement said. It didn’t spell out those rules.

Tun Aye, one of the sons of Maung Ni, has been detained on murder charges, his lawyer said on 13 January. Contacted by Reuters on 8 February, the lawyer declined to comment further. Reuters was unable to reach the other brother.

In October, Inn Din locals pointed the two Reuters reporters towards an area of brush behind the hill where they said the killings took place. The reporters discovered a newly cut trail leading to soft, recently disturbed earth littered with bones. Some of the bones were entangled with scraps of clothing and string that appeared to match the cord that is seen binding the captives’ wrists in the photographs. The immediate area was marked by the smell of death.

Reuters showed photographs of the site to three forensic experts: Homer Venters, director of programs at Physicians for Human Rights; Derrick Pounder, a pathologist who has consulted for Amnesty International and the United Nations; and Luis Fondebrider, president of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, who investigated the graves of those killed under Argentina’s military junta in the 1970s and 1980s. All observed human remains, including the thoracic part of a spinal column, ribs, scapula, femur and tibia. Pounder said he couldn’t rule out the presence of animal bones as well.

The Rakhine Buddhist elder provided Reuters reporters with a photograph which shows the aftermath of the execution. In it, the 10 Rohingya men are wearing the same clothing as in the previous photo and are tied to each other with the same yellow cord, piled into a small hole in the earth, blood pooling around them. Abdul Malik, the Islamic teacher, appears to have been beheaded. Abulu, the student, has a gaping wound in his neck. Both injuries appear consistent with Soe Chay’s account.

Fondebrider reviewed this picture. He said injuries visible on two of the bodies were consistent with “the action of a machete or something sharp that was applied on the throat.”

Some family members did not know for sure that the men had been killed until Reuters returned to their shelters in Bangladesh in January.

“I can’t explain what I feel inside. My husband is dead,” said Rehana Khatun, wife of Nur Mohammed. “My husband is gone forever. I don’t want anything else, but I want justice for his death.”

In Inn Din, the Buddhist elder explained why he chose to share evidence of the killings with Reuters. “I want to be transparent on this case. I don’t want it to happen like that in future.”

Your guide to the latest election news, analysis, commentary, live updates and schedule for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on firstpost.com/elections. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram or like our Facebook page for updates from all 543 constituencies for the upcoming general elections.</s>Two Reuters journalists are back with their families and colleagues Tuesday after being released from prison in Myanmar after President Win Myint issued a blanket pardon for thousands of prisoners.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been sentenced to seven years in jail for breaking the Official Secrets Act.

The pair were investigating the massacre of 10 Rohingya by police and soldiers in the village of Inn Din at the time of their arrest in 2017.

Their colleagues watched and cheered as Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo walked free Tuesday.

"We're really happy and excited to see our family and colleagues. I don't know what to say, we're very excited." Wa Lone said after his release.

"I really want to meet my family and I am supposed to go to the cinema with my family tonight," Kyaw Soe Oo told reporters.

Their long awaited reunion with the families, comes just two weeks after Myanmar’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal of their convictions. . At one point in their trial, a law enforcement official testified he planted documents on the two men.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for their work in uncovering the massacre, which they shared with two colleagues who completed the story after their conviction.</s>Two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested in December 2017 and accused of breaking Official Secrets Act for reporting on Rohingya crisis.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo walked free from a prison on the outskirts of Yangon on Tuesday after spending more than 500 days behind bars, Reuters reports citing witnesses.

Prison chief has reportedly confirmed that the two journalists have been freed, according to AP.

Earlier the president's office said in a statement that Myanmar would release 6,520 prisoners in an amnesty on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

President Win Myint pardoned thousands of prisoners in two mass amnesties last month.

It is customary in Myanmar for authorities to free prisoners around the time of the traditional New Year, which began on 17 April, Reuters report says.

The two reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been convicted in September and sentenced to seven years in jail.

Before their arrest in December 2017, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys by security forces and Buddhist civilians in western Myanmar's Rakhine State during an army crackdown that began in August 2017, Reuters report says.</s>The government of Myanmar on Tuesday released two Reuters journalists who were imprisoned for more than a year amid an international outcry over press freedom.

Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, had been jailed since late 2017 over allegations that they received documents containing state secrets from a police officer. The government accused the pair of violating Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act, but press freedom advocates accused officials of drumming up charges in retribution for their reporting on the crackdown of the Rohingya minority group.

“I’m really happy and excited to see my family and my colleagues. I can’t wait to go to my newsroom,” Wa Lone said outside of Insein Prison in Yangon, according to a report from Reuters.

The journalists’ release is a striking development in a case that has attracted international attention. Myanmar’s Supreme Court rejected their appeal at the end of last month and said they would have to continue serving their seven-year prison term.

At the time of their arrests, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been investigating the massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslims in the country, which was reportedly carried out by Myanmar troops and Buddhist villagers. Their story on the event was published by Reuters in February 2018 while they remained in jail.

Reuters ultimately won a 2019 Pulitzer Prize for its work covering the mass expulsion of the Rohingya, and both Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were recognized for their notable contributions to the stories. The pair were also recognized as Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” alongside others in the media last year.

Myanmar has drawn international condemnation for its treatment of the Rohingya, who had mostly resided in the country’s Rakhine state. Hundreds of thousands of people were violently forced from their homes and ultimately settled in neighboring Bangladesh. The U.S. House of Representatives declared the event a genocide last December, and the United Nations Human Rights Council has called for a tribunal to prosecute those responsible for any violence.

The event has also recast the political career of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate who was released from house arrest in 2010 and later become Myanmar’s de facto head of state. Many had championed her ascension, saying it would lead to a more Democratic process in the country after decades of military rule.

But after the treatment of the Rohingya and the imprisonment of many journalists, Aung San Suu Kyi has instead been accused of quashing any dissension against her leadership.

This article has been updated with more details on the Reuters journalists and their coverage.</s>Reuters / Ann Wang | Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo gesture as they walk free outside Insein prison after receiving a presidential pardon in Yangon, Myanmar, on May 7, 2019.

Two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar after they were convicted of breaking the Official Secrets Act walked free from a prison on the outskirts of Yangon on Tuesday after spending more than 500 days behind bars, witnesses said.

The two reporters, Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, had been convicted in September and sentenced to seven years in jail, in a case that raised questions about Myanmar's progress toward democracy and sparked an outcry from diplomats and human rights advocates.

President Win Myint has pardoned thousands of other prisoners in mass amnesties since last month.

It is customary in Myanmar for authorities to free prisoners across the country around the time of the traditional New Year, which began on April 17.

Reuters has said the two men did not commit any crime and had called for their release.

Swamped by media and well wishers as they walked through the gates of Insein Prison, on the outskirts of the commercial capital of Yangon, a grinning Wa Lone gave a thumbs up and said he was grateful for the international efforts to secure their freedom.

"I'm really happy and excited to see my family and my colleagues. I can't wait to go to my newsroom."

Before their arrest in December 2017, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys by security forces and Buddhist civilians in western Myanmar's Rakhine State during an army crackdown that began in August 2017.

The operation sent more than 730,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, according to U.N. estimates.

The report the two men authored, featuring testimony from perpetrators, witnesses and families of the victims, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in May, adding to a number of accolades received by the pair for their journalism.

Calls to a spokesman for the Myanmar government were not immediately answered.

Myanmar's Supreme Court had rejected the journalists' final appeal in April.

They had petitioned the country's top court, citing evidence of a police set-up and lack of proof of a crime, after the Yangon High Court dismissed an earlier appeal in January.

The reporters' wives wrote a letter to the government in April pleading for a pardon, not, they said, because their husbands had done anything wrong, but because it would allow them to be released from prison and reunited with their families.

The Reuters journalists were released at the prison to Lord Ara Darzi, a British surgeon and health care expert who has served as a member of an advisory group to Myanmar’s government, and a Reuters representative.

Darzi waited for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo at the gates of Insein prison on a street where a group of dozens of reporters and photographers expecting a release of prisoners were also waiting.

In a statement to Reuters, Darzi, 59, said the release of the two journalists came after “months of dialogue” with the government of Myanmar.

"I am delighted that the Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, have been granted a pardon, released from custody, and are with their loved ones once more. I know that it will come as a huge relief to their families, friends and colleagues,” Darzi said in the statement.

“This outcome shows that dialogue works, even in the most difficult of circumstances.”

Darzi said discussions about the pardon for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had involved the Myanmar government, Reuters, the United Nations and representatives of other governments but did not provide more detail on those closed-door talks.

Reuters had no immediate comment.

Darzi has been a member of an advisory commission that was formed to see through the advice from a panel headed by former UN chief Kofi Anan on solving the long-running conflict in Myanmar’s western region in the state of Rakhine.

Rakhine, on the Bay of Bengal, was the home to most Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

Hundreds of thousands fled to Bangladesh after a military-led crackdown on the region in 2017.

Senior Myanmar government officials, diplomats and some international representatives are meeting in Yangon to discuss Rakhine this week.

“The power of dialogue must be turned towards securing a lasting peace in Rakhine State and the return of the hundreds of thousands of refugees, whose desperate plight continues. This is essential if Myanmar is to build on today’s progress so that all its citizens can live together in dignity in the hope of a better tomorrow,” Darzi said in the statement.
Myanmar President Win Myint pardons two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had been imprisoned at Insein Prison for more than 500 days after being charged with possession of classified documents under the Official Secrets Act. The pair were arrested in December 2017 as they were investigating the Inn Din massacre.