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US president calls for release of Burmese opposition leader in landmark meeting with Thein Sein.
Obama made the demand during a summit in Singapore with Thein Sein and nine other leaders of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean).
The meeting made Obama the first US president to be present in the same room as a Burmese leader since Lyndon Johnson met Prime Minister Ne Win in 1966.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters that Obama had raised the subject of Aung San Suu Kyi “directly with that government”, indicating that he had spoken directly to Thein Sein. There were conflicting reports whether the US president had shaken hands with the Burmese premier.
Communicating directly
After the meeting, Obama told reporters that he had “reaffirmed” an offer made earlier of better relations with Washington if Burma pursued democratic reforms and freed political prisoners.
Speaking in Tokyo yesterday, Obama made a point of mentioning Aung San Suu Kyi by name, adding that Burma would only find “true security and prosperity” by releasing her and more than 2,000 other political prisoners.
He acknowledged that years of US sanctions against Burma, coupled with engagement by its Asian neighbours, had failed to bring about change.
“Despite years of good intentions, neither sanctions by the US nor engagement of others have succeeded in improving the lives of Burmese people,” he said.
“So we are now communicating directly with the leadership to make it clear that existing sanctions will remain until there are concrete steps toward democratic reform.
“There are clear steps that must be taken.”
Book for children
Aung San Suu Kyi (b.1945), a charismatic Burma’s opposition leader, has been placed under house arrest on numerous occasions since she began her political career, totaling 14 of the past 20 years.
Former Norwegian Government’s leader Kjell Magne Bondevik has recently shared his memories about meeting her in a children’s book about Aung San Suu Kyi.
The book is aimed at children and young people between eight and 13 years.
Kjell Magne Bondevik has as one of the few government leaders, and the only Norwegian, visited Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma. In the book he reveals for the first time that he sneaked into the country with his old passports.
– I had several times applied to get into Burma, but was consistently denied visas. In 1997 I was in Singapore in another errand, and I went to Burma’s embassy. Instead of having with me my passport, which showed that I was a member of parliament, I had another pass where it was that I was a priest. And it’s true! I was dressed in khaki-shorts and sunglasses. Now they find me well on a blacklist, I thought. But after five minutes I was told I was allowed, if I promised not to preach,” said Bondevik.
Hopes for upcoming elections
Suu Kyi is serving 18 months in detention after a Burmese court found her guilty of allowing an uninvited American guest to stay at her home in violation of the terms of her house arrest.
Critics of the dictatorship denounced the trial and verdict as an attempt to exclude her from elections due to be held next year.
Her opposition National League for Democracy won elections in 1990 but the result was never recognised by the junta, which has ruled Burma since 1962.
According to a Burmese diplomat Aung San Suu Kyi will soon be released and be able to organize his party before the scheduled election next year, reported The Guardian.
Still, Director of the Norwegian Burma Committee Inger-Lise Husøy believes the elections should not raise false expectations: “It is the constitution and basis for the election that is the problem. The international community should support the movement’s call for change of the constitution and not cross fingers and hope for opportunities that may arise in a process totally controlled by the junta.”
