US President Barack Obama will soon appoint the first US special envoy for Myanmar, officials said, signaling a renewed effort to pry open the nation after its much criticized political transition.
People involved in the process said Obama would name Derek Mitchell, a veteran policymaker on Asia who now serves at the Pentagon, as the coordinator for US efforts for the country formerly known as Burma.
A US official said on condition of anonymity that the administration would announce the nomination “very soon” and likely roll out Mitchell with an appearance before Congress, a hotbed of criticism of Myanmar.
After Obama took office in January 2009, his administration initiated a dialogue with the military leadership of Myanmar after concluding that Western efforts to isolate the military-led nation had been ineffective.
The US has voiced disappointment over developments in Myanmar, including an election in November widely denounced as a sham, but has said that it sees no alternative to dialogue with the regime at such a fluid time.
Kurt Campbell, the top US Department of State official for East Asia, had personally spearheaded the Obama administration’s efforts on Myanmar and traveled twice to the isolated country.
Congress approved a wide-ranging law on Myanmar in 2008 that tightened sanctions and created the special envoy position. Then-US president George W. Bush named Michael Green, formerly one of his top aides, but the nomination died in the Senate owing to an unrelated political dispute.
Green, now an academic at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Georgetown University, said Mitchell’s expected appointment would give momentum to Myanmar policy — provided that the administration gives him enough space to maneuver.
“Kurt Campbell wanted to make a serious run at this. He did as well as could be expected, but it yielded no positive change, so now they want to invest this with someone who has a full-time commitment,” Green said.
Myanmar’s ruling junta officially disbanded on Wednesday, giving the country a nominally civilian government for the first time in nearly a century, but many analysts called the move a masquerade, as top junta figures remain firmly in leadership positions, albeit without their uniforms.
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