Senior U.S. Diplomats Arrive in Myanmar

Two senior U.S. diplomats arrived in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, on Tuesday for a visit which is due to see them meet with the country's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest.

It is not thought that Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and his deputy Scot Marciel, will be meeting with Senior General Than Shwe, the head of the military government, but the men are expected to hold talks with Thein Sein, the prime minister of Myanmar, a country formerly known as Burma and one which secured its independence from the U.K. in 1948. As Al Jazeera reports Mr Campbell is the most senior official from the U.S. to visit Myanmar since Madeleine Albright, then U.S. ambassador to the UN, traveled there in 1995. Whilst U.S. President Obama announced in May that sanctions imposed on Myanmar 12 years ago were being extended for another year, in September Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated that the U.S. intends to talk direct with the leaders of the military regime in the Asian country about reforms to improve democracy and human rights. There have also been concerns regarding Myanmar's military links with North Korea. Spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Myanmar, Richard Mei, said of the visit by Mr Campbell:

It’s a follow-up to the meetings that got started in New York, so at a minimum he’s going to be seeing the same two senior leaders he met there before

Bloomberg confirms that the two senior leaders to whom Mr Mei is referring are U Thaung, minister for science and technology in Myanmar, and Than Swe, the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations. The meetings Mr Mei spoke of were held in New York on September 29. On Wednesday Mr Campbell and Mr Marcial will travel to Yangon, also known as Rangoon and the former capital of Myanmar, to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). Ms Suu Kyi has been detained by the authorities in Myanmar, which has a population of some 50 million people, for 14 of the last 20 years. In August her house arrest was extended by 18 months after she was found guilty of violating its terms by allowing an American man, John Yettaw, to stay at her home. Mr Yettaw, whose release from jail in Myanmar was negotiated by U.S. Senator Jim Webb when he visited the country in August, had not been invited to the home of Ms Suu Kyi but had swum across an adjacent lake to reach it. The extension of her house arrest may mean that Ms Suu Kyi, the 64-year-old daughter of General Aung San, the man who led the fight for Burmese independence from the British and was assassinated in 1947, is unable to participate in elections that are supposedly taking place in Myanmar next year. As Bloomberg notes in 1990 the NDL won the last elections held in Myanmar but the military regime refused to recognize the results. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 Ms Suu Kyi is said to welcome the new approach to the military regime being adopted by the U.S. and has offered to help the regime secure the lifting of sanctions. In return the regime has conceded, according to Al Jazeera, that it can see Ms Suu Kyi playing some kind of role in ensuring a peaceful run-up to the 2010 elections. On November 15 the U.S.-ASEAN summit begins in Singapore and Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of the country hosting a summit which President Obama is apparently due to attend, has noted:

The U.S. has shifted its position and is now willing to engage Myanmar, and I think Myanmar is engaging. Our view has always been that ostracizing Myanmar and cutting it off altogether is not a constructive way forward and unlikely to yield any results