Myanmar/US - high-level talks

Democracy push as US seeks to boost Myanmar ties

Article published on the 2009-11-05 Latest update 2009-11-05 14:42 TU

US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell in Tokyo on Thursday
(Photo: Reuters)

Washington is ready to boost ties with Myanmar but will not lift sanctions until there is progress on democracy, a US diplomat said Thursday after high-level talks with the ruling junta.

US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and his deputy Scot Marciel held a rare meeting with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Prime Minister Thein Sein during their two-day visit.

"This is early days, the first time we met most of these people. It's going to take some time to see how they respond," Marciel told a public forum on Thursday in Bangkok.

"We are willing to move ahead in terms of bilateral relations but we are only going to do that if there is real progress."

The trip was a follow-up to discussions in New York in September between US and Myanmar officials, the highest level US contact with the regime in nearly a decade.

It came two months after US President Barack Obama changed the country’s policy on Myanmar, saying it would push for engagement with the military regime because sanctions on their own had failed.

Marciel stressed that the United States wanted to see the release of Nobel laureate Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, improvements in human rights and the pursuit of democratic reform ahead of elections promised by the junta for 2010.

He said Suu Kyi must be allowed regular opportunities to interact with her National League for Democracy (NLD) party ahead of elections. The NLD won Myanmar's last elections in 1990, but the junta refused to recognise the result.

Soe Aung of the Forum for Democracy in Burma agrees with Marciel, but adds that the US must be willing to involve other parties as well.

"It is clear to me that although this policy review is important.... (the US) must work hand-in-hand with other international communities," he says. "They must work with the European Union and the United Nations. There must be a dialogue."

The ruling generals have kept the 64-year-old Suu Kyi in detention for most of the last two decades. They extended her house arrest by 18 months in August after an American man swam uninvited to her lakeside house.