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From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is the day.

Today, nearly 400,000 Muslims have fled Myanmar in recent weeks.

How could a small southeastern nation celebrated by the U.S. as a good news story of democracy?

Now be condemned by the U.N. as a quote textbook example of ethnic cleansing.

It's Thursday, September 14th.

I want to make a pledge to the people of this country that I am confident we can keep.

Hannah Beach, take me back to 2012. Why does President Obama visit this tiny country of Myanmar?

One of the most important goals of Obama's trip was to begin reestablishing diplomatic relations with Myanmar.

I'm proud to be the first American president to visit this spectacular country.

Myanmar used to be called Burma. And since 1962 was ruled by an army junta.

Army junta is in general not good things. But this was a particularly brutal junta.

And so when Obama arrived, it was a situation in which a military regime was peacefully looking like

it was transitioning and potentially giving power to an opposition.

Our goal is to sustain the momentum for democratization.

That includes building.

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