The military that ran Myanmar for decades will continue to play a major role in the country, the former general who has presided over the transformation of a nation that only three years ago was considered one of the world's most repressive said Sunday.
The army has a proud history in Myanmar and "will always have a special place" in government, Myanmar President Thein Sein said in an interview Sunday, on the eve of a White House meeting with President Barack Obama.
Thein Sein dismissed as "pure fabrication" the allegation from human rights monitors that the Myanmarese Army condones or even participates in ethnic pogroms against the nation's Muslim minority. The army "is more disciplined than normal citizens, because they have to abide by military rules," he said.