U.S. urges Myanmar to hold security forces accountable in Rohingya crackdown

FILE PHOTO: Rohingya refugees are reflected in rain water along an embankment next to paddy fields after fleeing from Myanmar into Palang Khali, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Myanmar's government to take concrete steps to investigate human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims and hold accountable members of its security forces and others for any involvement in those actions, a State Department official said on Friday.

Pompeo gave the message at a meeting with Myanmar government minister Kyaw Tint Swe on Thursday at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, after the recent release of U.S. and U.N. reports chronicling atrocities in the military crackdown last year, which sent almost 700,000 minority Rohingya Muslims fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh.