DHAKA: US president Barack Obama warned on Sunday that ethnic and religious conflicts could move Myanmar in a ‘very bad direction’.

Obama praised the ‘courageous process’ of political reform taking place in a country formerly led by a military junta, but warned that democratization after years of repression brought its own perils.

‘Myanmar won’t succeed if the Muslim population is oppressed,’ Obama said at a ‘town hall’ meeting during a visit to Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Obama was referring to Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine state which has been subject to persecution at the hands of Buddhist nationalists.

BDST: 1649 HRS, APR 27, 2014