by Shaun Tandon, October 1, 2009
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A senior US official said Wednesday he was hopeful after the highest-level talks with Myanmar in nearly a decade but warned against lifting sanctions until the junta moves on democracy.
Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for Asian affairs, met Tuesday with a delegation from Myanmar in New York one day after he unveiled a new blueprint of engaging the longtime pariah state.
"There were certainly no breakthroughs, but a very clear determination that dialogue was possible on the side of Burma," Campbell, using Myanmar's old name, said as he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He said that the US side laid out clear demands for the regime, including freeing political prisoners such as democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate who has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest.
"Lifting or easing sanctions at the outset of a dialogue without meaningful progress on our concerns would be a mistake," Campbell said.
Campbell called on the junta to engage in a dialogue with the opposition and restive ethnic groups and warned that any insincere attempt "would get virtually no international support or recognition."
Wednesday's hearing was called by Senator Jim Webb, who in August paid an unprecedented visit to Myanmar to meet both with top junta leader Than Shwe and Aung San Suu Kyi.
Webb, a gruff author and former combat Marine, is the leading advocate in Congress of engaging Myanmar. He often points to the example of Vietnam, saying that the easing of US sanctions helped open up the communist state.
In a silent protest, monks poured into the Senate hearing room along with dozens of critics of the Myanmar regime wearing bright green shirts that read, "Burma is not Vietnam."
Webb said that while the United States had "honorable" motives in isolating Myanmar, it was merely losing leverage as neighboring nations -- particularly China -- are keen to do business with Myanmar.
"The situation we face with Burma is an example of what can happen when we seek to isolate a country from the rest of world, but the rest of the world does not follow," Webb said.
David Williams, a professor at Indiana University, told the hearing it would be a mistake to relax sanctions without seeing progress.
"If the US opens dialogue with the regime, it must demand that the regime simultaneously open dialogue with its own citizens," Williams said.
"And let us speak plainly: if we try to compete with China for influence over a military autocracy, we will always be at a disadvantage because there are some things we just won't do," he said.
President Barack Obama's administration has made dialogue a signature policy, saying it is open to talks with staunch US foes such as Iran and Cuba.
The State Department said Campbell's meetings Tuesday were the highest-level interaction between the administration and the junta since September 2000 under the Bill Clinton administration.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Campbell and his deputy Scot Marciel also raised US concerns about Myanmar's "relationship with North Korea" as well as "our proliferation concerns associated with that."
During a visit to Thailand in July, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the communist state could be sharing atomic technology with military-ruled Myanmar, posing a major threat to the region.
Crowley, the assistant secretary for public affairs, described the two-hour encounter Tuesday in the Waldorf Astoria hotel as "a cautious beginning and an initial meeting."
He added that "time and patience" will be required as both sides pursue further talks.
