US/ Myanmar - envoy visit

US envoy meets Suu Kyi

Article published on the 2009-11-03 Latest update 2009-11-04 09:48 TU

Aung San Suu Kyi.
(Photo: AFP)

The United States envoy has met with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s ruling generals in their highest level visit to the country in 14 years.

Kurt Campbell, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and deputy Scott Marciel arrived in the capital Naypyidar on a US Air Force plane earlier on Tuesday.

The two met with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the Inya Lake Hotel in Yangon. It was the first time she had appeared in front of media since her house arrest began in 2003.

Campbell and Marciel met with Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsann and pro-junta organisations on Tuesday, say Myanmar officials.

The two-day visit is unlikely to include a meeting with junta chief Senior General Than Shwe, although the delegation is due to hold talks with Prime Minister Thein Sein on Wednesday.

Thein Sein told an October summit in Thailand that the junta sees a role for democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the future and could ease restrictions on the Nobel Peace laureate. Suu Kyi has been in detention for most of the past two decades.

In August her sentence was extended by 18 months following an attempt by John Yettaw, an American, to swim to her lakeside house. A visit by US senator Jim Webb secured the release of Yettaw later in the month.

Aung Zaw, editor of the Irrawaddy newsmagazine in Bangkok, told RFI  "this is a very good opportunity for Suu Kyi to have a very open discussion with the American delegation, because America has been a staunch supporter of the Burmese Democracy movement in the last twenty years."

"Burmese people and also opposition members have been counting on America. People believe America has a role to play,” says Zaw.

Campbell is the highest ranking US official to visit Myanmar since Madelaine Albright in 1995. Albright went as US ambassador to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton.

The US increased sanctions on Myanmar after the junta’s bloody crackdown on Buddhist monks in 2007.