US President Barack Obama urged Myanmar Monday to step up its reform drive on a historic visit

US President Barack Obama urged Myanmar Monday to step up its reform drive on a historic visit which till the moment didn't mention anything or any step that should be taken against the continued ethnic conflict in Myanmar's western Rakhine State, which borders Bangladesh.
  
The trip, the first to Myanmar by a serving US president, came as the regime freed dozens more political prisoners to burnish its reform credentials.
  
Obama's motorcade passed tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters -- some chanting "America" -- lining the streets of Yangon, the backdrop for several bloody crackdowns on pro-democracy uprisings.
  
After a red-carpet welcome for Air Force One, Obama met Myanmar's reformist President Thein Sein, hoping to embolden the former general to speed up the country's march out of decades of iron-fisted military rule. "This is just the first step on what will be a long journey," Obama told reporters as Thein Sein looked on.
  
Obama paid a brief visit to Shwedagon Pagoda, a gold-plated spire encrusted with diamonds and rubies that is the spiritual centre of Burmese Buddhism.
  
Aung San Suu Kyi sounded a note of caution about the sweeping changes. "The most difficult time in any transition is when we think that success is in sight," she said. "We have to be very careful that we're not lured by the mirage of success."
  
Obama claimed his visit is not an "endorsement" of the regime but "an acknowledgement" of the reform process.
  
Some human rights groups said Obama should have waited longer to visit, arguing that he could have dangled the prospect of a trip as leverage to seek more progress such as the release of scores of remaining political prisoners.

Many Rohingyas fleeing this year's violence tried to reach Bangladesh by boat but were pushed back by the local authorities. The Bangladesh government this year has resisted international pressure to open its borders to the Rohingyas, as the country still already hosts as many as 100,000 refugees who have fled Myanmar in several waves following the cancellation of their citizenship rights there.

The biggest exodus occurred in early 1992, when 250,000 fled to Bangladesh when faced with "military persecution" in Myanmar.