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Leeds keeping it low-key in trip to blood-soaked Myanmar

LEEDS have left out most of their big names for their misguided trip to Myanmar.

The Championship club play a Myanmar national league All-Stars XI in Yangon tomorrow before taking on the national side in Mandalay on Friday.

“It's a mixture of a few boys who featured [on Sunday], a lot of 23s and some 18s," said Leeds boss Paul Heckingbottom after his side's final-day win against QPR at the weekend.

“Me going to Myanmar, I’m not there for the football. I’m there for the club and for the team and the players, to get to know them more, to push them to understand what it's like being in a first-team environment and for them to feel a bit more comfortable around us.”

Indeed, few eyes will be on the football, with the apparent support the the Yorkshire club is giving to a genocidal regime drawing more attention when the tour was announced.

Labour shadow sports minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan said last month that Leeds would be “morally bankrupt” to go ahead with the trip.

“No club should promote a country which carries out state-sponsored mass murder,” she said.

“They must rethink. History will judge them to be on the wrong side of this.”

More than 680,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar to Bangladesh since August — out of a population of only 1.1 million.

Numerous UN officials have said Aung San Suu Kyi’s government appears to be committing acts of genocide against the Rohingya population.

Leeds Supporters Trust said its fears about fan safety had been assuaged, but branded the visit a “strange and controversial choice.”

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