US 'very concerned' over Myanmar situation: embassy

The US embassy in Dhaka today said Washington is very concerned over the escalation of conflicts in Myanmar and is keeping a close watch on the developments there.

"We are following the developments very closely. Obviously, we are very concerned. We are also monitoring the situation very closely," said Stephen F Ibelli, spokesperson of the US Embassy in Dhaka today.

He was speaking to journalists on the sideline of the launch of the first-ever TechCamp in Bangladesh to empower young journalists at a city hotel.

The comment comes when The Daily Star asked if the US will play any role as the ongoing conflict between the army and rebels in Myanmar is destabilising the country.

When asked if the letter written by US President Joe Biden to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina hints at easing the tensions between the countries, he said the US ambassador in Dhaka and many US officials did not find the elections on January 7 free and fair.

He said the US works with countries around the globe and many of those are not democracies, and have different forms of governments.

"And I think this is the same for Bangladesh … we are looking to work with Bangladesh in mutual areas of cooperation like economy, climate change," he said.

He said the United States is the number one foreign direct investor in Bangladesh and the number one location for goods and services from Bangladesh.

"I think that is very indicative of the interest of the United States and that is also indicative of the fact that we try to partner in the areas in which we have mutual interest."

Asked if the US would withdraw the sanctions imposed against Rab in 2021 December and review the visa policy announced in May last year, Stephen said he has no information on that. However, he said that after the sanctions, the number of extrajudicial killings declined.

"So, we feel the sanctions had an effect on crimes and extrajudicial killings that were being committed by Rab," he added.

On the three-day TechCamp workshop being hosted by the US Embassy in Dhaka, he said it aimed to empower 50 aspiring journalists to combat misinformation, fact check, and learn best practices on Artificial Intelligence.

Stephen Ibelli said, "Every day, we are exposed to so much information that we can barely keep track of. Oftentimes, we mix rumours with facts and truths. It is really easy to become confused. To deal with this challenge, we need to equip ourselves with critical thinking and the correct tools to identify."

Those participating in the workshop can later compete with their ideas on fact-checking, and the best ideas will be supported by the US embassy.