Senior US envoy prepares to head to Burma
Updated
Burma has confirmed that it will host a US diplomatic mission next week, after Washington's announcement that it's embarking on a series of meetings to engage Rangoon's military leaders.
The diplomatic drive was first flagged two months ago, when the US said it will engage Burma diplomatically, in addition to sanctions, to encourage the military regime to move towards democracy. A Burmese spokesman in Rangoon said details of the US visit were still being worked out.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Dr Nicholas Farrelly, Australian National University. Also, co-producer New Mandala blog http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala
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FARRELLY: I think that the Obama Administration has signalled early and increasingly strongly that it is prepared to engage with the Burmese generals in what they are describing as a newly-pragmatic approach. There has been opposition to this new approach from the Republicans in Congress and elsewhere and it stands in stark contrast to the approach that was taken by the administration of President Bush. It's really and effort taken by Obama and his lieutenants in Washington to break the stalemate that has really bogged Burma down for the past two decades.
LAM: Nicholas, what do you think Burma advocacy groups and NGOs might make of this latest US initiative?
FARRELLY: I think for some Burma advocacy groups this is well and truly overdue. They have welcomed the signals that have been coming from the Obama administration as at least a step in the direction that could take things forward positively. But of course there are others that still consider that any effort to engage with the generals merely legitimises them and through that extra legitimacy the Burmese generals gain strength, they can perhaps set aside something of their pariah status and for those that are on the more critical edge of Burma activism there will be no joy in these current moves coming out of Washington.
LAM: Do you think Burma might become another North Korea in terms of US foreign policy in that Washington might make concession after concession with very little to show for it?
FARRELLY: It is intriguing that in his comments recently the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, intimated that on his watch that the United States knows actually far less about Burma at a fundamental level that it does about North Korea. American efforts to pressure North Korea or to bring North Korea into the sunshine seem to have stalled in all sorts of ways. For Burma perhaps there's a different dynamic, there is a sense that as the Burmese generals prepare for their 2010 elections that there will be an opportunity albeit perhaps brief for America and other western governments to exert new kinds of pressure on the Burmese generals, and perhaps then open up some extra space for Aung San Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy movement to really come back to the negotiating table and take advantage of the sorts of pressure that the Burmese generals might start to feel.
LAM: Well, Kurt Campbell, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia said last night that the Burmese generals are moving towards greater interest in engaging America, are there signs though in Burma that the generals are willing to listen and negotiate with the NLD or indeed with Ms Suu Kyi herself in the leadup to next year's election?
FARRELLY: There have been some moves over recent months, particularly since that bizarre incident with the aquatic intruder John Yettaw, who swam across the lake to Aung San Suu Kyi's residence and precipitated some of the recent Burma matters that have been of interest to the media and the public more generally, that in these recent months the generals have dispatched an envoy Aung Kyi who is the Burmese Labor Minister to have a number of discussions with Aung San Suu Kyi. Whether those discussions turn into something concrete is really too early to tell. But what we can surmise right now is that from America from Burma and from elsewhere there are all sorts of pieces that are now in motion.
