Opposition Set for US Talks

A pro-democracy party wants Washington to further political reform in Burma.

2011.05.18
yun&assk305.jpg Joseph Yun and Aung San Suu Kyi speak to the media in Rangoon, Dec. 10, 2010.
AFP

Burma’s most prominent opposition figure, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is expected to ask a visiting senior U.S. official to push for much-needed policy reforms in the new government that replaced the repressive military junta.

Joseph Yun, the deputy U.S. assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs, will meet with Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy party as part of a four-day visit which began Wednesday.

Yun held talks with Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin in the capital of Naypyidaw Wednesday in what marked the most senior meeting between officials of the two countries since Burma’s nominally civilian government took power in March.

U.S. State Department Spokesman Mark Toner said in a briefing in Washington on Tuesday that Yun will also hold talks with “a variety of stakeholders, including representatives of political parties, nongovernmental organizations, ethnic minorities, as well as the business community” during his visit.

Noting that the talks between Yun and Suu Kyi in her Rangoon home would follow his meetings with Burmese government officials, NLD spokesperson Nyan Win said the Thursday discussion would be based on the “outcome” of the talks between the U.S. and Burmese governments.

"We will be discussing items including the rule of law, the human rights issue, and democratization according to NLD policy, as well as what is really happening in our country,” Nyan Win said.

“We see that [the U.S. is] trying to apply direct and effective engagement, as per their announcement, and we will be discussing this policy as well."

Policy of engagement

Since 2009, when U.S. President Barack Obama's administration launched a drive to engage with the military junta, Washington has signaled frustration over results of the dialogue and maintained sanctions despite the country’s first elections in over 20 years.

Critics say the November polls lacked a legitimate opposition and were staged to ensure that members of the military junta would continue to hold the country’s top political positions in the new government.

Asked whether the NLD is advocating the use of additional sanctions by the U.S. against Burma or other stricter methods to force measureable reform, Nyan Win urged patience.

"We are striving for change through nonviolence, and so we need to be patient. We will not ask for [punishment] because this approach doesn't work,” he said.

“We will keep trying until those persons leading the country come to see the situation as it truly is and take a more realistic approach [to governing]."

While the NLD has not seen the kinds of results it had hoped for from the Burmese government in reaction to U.S. policy under the Obama administration, “we are not discouraged,” Nyan Win added.

UN visit

Yun’s trip to Burma follows a three-day visit by Vijay Nambiar, the top aide to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Nambiar’s visit, which also marked the first by a top U.N. official to Burma since the new government took office, ended Friday.

As his visit concluded, Nambiar said he was “encouraged” by statements made by the government about “concrete steps” it plans towards reform, raising international expectations of an amnesty for the country’s estimated 2,200 political prisoners.

Instead, newly installed President Thein Sein announced Monday that the government would commute the sentences of all prisoners on death row to life imprisonment and reduce the sentences of all current prisoners by one year.

The limited amnesty led to the release of only 47 of Burma’s political prisoners—most of whom still face double-digit jail terms for participating in peaceful political activism.

Opposition groups and human rights watchdogs reacted angrily to the announcement.

Human Rights Watch called the decision “a slap in the face to a senior United Nations envoy who had just called for the release of all political prisoners in Burma” while the U.S. Campaign for Burma said it served as a reminder that the country’s new government is “merely a continuation of military rule and military mindset under a veneer of civilian guise.”

Nyan Win said the granting of a limited amnesty had changed nothing ahead of Yun’s visit.

"We are hoping for change, but the recent release of prisoners is not the kind we wanted. This is in no way related to change."

Aung San Suu Kyi was herself set free following the November elections after spending most of the past two decades under house arrest.

But despite her release, Burma continues to face heavy criticism from Western powers who have pledged to keep sanctions against the nation in place until the new government demonstrates a capacity for change.

Bomb blast

Yun’s visit also coincided with the bombing of a train at a station near Naypyidaw which killed at least two people on Wednesday.

State media said the blast occurred at around 4 p.m. when the train, which runs between Mandalay and Rangoon, stopped briefly at Sinthe station.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, which is the first in Burma since the new government came to power.

Bombings are rare but not unknown in Burma, which has a long history of internal conflict, especially between the central government and ethnic minorities in border areas seeking greater autonomy.

The country was hit with seven separate bomb attacks over the course of a few weeks in spring last year ahead of the elections in November.

The highest-profile explosions occurred on April 15, 2010 in Rangoon, the country's biggest city and former capital, when three bombs killed as many as 20 people and wounded 170 others during the traditional New Year water festival.

Reported by Kyaw Kyaw Aung and Nayrein Kyaw for RFA’s Burmese service. Translated by Khin May Zaw. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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