The most important step Myanmar can take to improve its international relations is to free its more than 2,000 political prisoners, a US official said on Monday, as Washington prepares to appoint a special envoy to the country.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Joseph Yun described the release in November last year of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi after years of house arrest as “very significant.”
However, he urged Myanmar to go further. He described the government recently installed after elections that were boycotted by Suu Kyi’s party as “much the same people as before,” which means they are dominated by the military.
Yun said the US was continuing its two-track policy of retaining sanctions, while seeking to engage Myanmar. That approach was adopted by US President Barack Obama’s administration about 18 months ago after two decades of efforts to isolate the military government failed to force positive change.
Speaking at a conference on Myanmar at Washington’s Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Yun said the coming appointment of a US envoy to the country, expected to be defense official Derek Mitchell, would give Washington a new interlocutor to speak with government and opposition, coordinate US policy and work with the international community.
“We are looking for the release of political prisoners. I think that would be the single most concrete item Naypyidaw could do for the international community,” Yun said, referring to Myanmar’s administrative capital.
He said the US also wants assurances the security of Suu Kyi and her supporters is not under threat and the government to legitimize her party and bring it and other democratic and ethnic opposition parties into the political mainstream.
The US offer of engagement was not sustainable forever “unless we get something for it,” Yun said.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is urging Western nations to lift sanctions against Myanmar, an ASEAN member. They have been imposed for its alleged rights abuses and suppression of democracy. The EU is likely to ease sanctions slightly on Tuesday by lifting a visa ban for a year on certain civilian members of the military-led regime, an EU official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.
Any easing would open a gap between the EU and the US, which said it is too early to lift sanctions.
Suu Kyi’s party won elections 1990, but was barred from taking power. The party was outlawed for refusing to participate in the vote in November last year. Suu Kyi has spent much of the past two decades under house arrest.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was