Top US diplomats arrive in Myanmar

‘IMPORTANT, BUT’ The visit is seen as a start of direct engagement, with one foreign envoy in Yangon describing it as ‘important, but ... without immediate consequence’

AFP , YANGON, MYANMAR

The NLD won Myanmar’s last elections in 1990, by a landslide, which the junta refused to acknowledge. The US toughened sanctions on Myanmar after the regime cracked down on protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007.

The 64-year-old Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention. But last month the generals granted her two rare meetings with a junta minister and allowed her to see Western diplomats.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.