US ready to take steps to improve relations with Myanmar (Roundup)

Yangon - The United States is ready to improve its relations with Myanmar on the condition that the ruling military junta makes significant moves toward political reconciliation, US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Wednesday. Campbell, the highest ranking American official to visit military-ruled Myanmar in 14 years, met with Prime Minister Thein Sein, other military leaders, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party members during his visit Tuesday and Wednesday to Myanmar. Campbell, accompanied by US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel, met with Thein Sein in the capital, Naypyitaw, Wednesday morning before flying to Yangon, where he was allowed a rare interview with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi. 'In our meetings with the government, including with the prime minister, information minister and others, we stressed clearly that the US is prepared to take steps to improve the relationship, but the process must be based on reciprocal, complete efforts by the Burmese government,' Campbell said in a statement read at Yangon Airport before his departure. He described his trip as an 'exploratory mission designed to explain to key stakeholders inside Burma' US views toward the country, long deemed a pariah state because of its poor human rights record and refusal to free Suu Kyi and 2,100 other political prisoners and implement democratic reforms. Campbell, like other US officials, insisted on calling the country Burma instead of Myanmar, the junta's official name for the land. US President Barack Obama has mooted a new policy of 'engagement' with the regime since coming to office, but Campbell stressed that the United States continued to call for the release of Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest. He also reiterated US commitment to a dialogue between the government and the opposition and ethnic minority groups. 'Towards this end, we asked the Burmese government to allow Aung San Suu Kyi more frequent interaction with stakeholders, especially members of her own party,' Campbell said. Campbell and Marciel also met with leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which Suu Kyi's heads. Suu Kyi met for almost two hours at a Yangon hotel with Campbell and Marciel. In an unusual display of openness in the military-run country, local journalists were allowed to take photos of Suu Kyi, 65, as she arrived and left the hotel. 'Smile for us, aunty Suu,' the cameramen called when she emerged from the meeting. 'Is this a beautiful smile?' Suu Kyi joked, beaming and seemingly in good health. The latest detention stint for Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar independence hero Aung San, has lasted six years, and she was recently sentenced to another 18 months of house detention, a sufficient sentence to keep her out of the picture when the junta stages a general election planned next year. The United States has indicated that it might consider lifting some of its economic sanctions on Myanmar if the regime frees Suu Kyi and takes other measures to assure next year's election is 'inclusive,' free and fair. On Tuesday, Campbell and Marceil met with Information Minister Kyaw Hsan, Science and Technology Minister U Thaung and representatives of the Election Commission in Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of Myanmar's old capital of Yangon. They were not granted an audience with military supremo Senior General Than Shwe. Marciel is to travel to Thailand to participate in a public forum at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University on US foreign policy toward Myanmar Thursday and also brief Thai officials. Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Suu Kyi's NLD won a 1990 general election by a landslide but has been denied power by the military. The international community was not expected to accept the outcome of next year's election unless Suu Kyi and other political prisoners are freed and the NLD is allowed to contest the polls.