YANGON - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has requested permission from the ruling junta to talk about lifting economic sanctions with the US, Australia and the European (EU), opposition sources said Monday.
Suu Kyi, who is currently under house detention, made the request in a letter sent to junta chief Senior General Than Shwe, the National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party revealed.
“Let me meet with the charge d’affaires of the US, an ambassador representing the European Union countries and the Australian ambassador to discuss lifting sanctions against Myanmar,” Suu Kyi said in a letter Sep 25, 2009.
Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest, has made it clear that she is ready to cooperate with the ruling junta to get the West to lift economic sanctions imposed on the country.
“Daw (Madame) Aung San Suu Kyi has written a letter to Senior General Than Shwe regarding the sanctions issue,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi said last week. Than Shwe is Myanmar’s current military strongman.
He said Suu Kyi indicated she is not opposed to ending Western sanctions against Myanmar, as long as there is “engagement” on both sides.
In her letter to Than Shwe, Suu Kyi said it was necessary to discuss three points: which countries have imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar, the impact of the sanctions and why they were imposed.
Economic sanctions have been imposed on Myanmar since 1988, when the military brutally cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations, leaving an estimated 3,000 people dead.
The US and the EU have increased their sanctions as the junta first refused to acknowledge the NLD’s victory in the 1990 elections, and then proceeded to arrest critics and suppress all forms of dissent.
Earlier this year, junta chief Than Shwe hinted that he would be willing to open a political dialogue with Suu Kyi if she agreed to cooperate in persuading the West to lift the sanctions.
To date, Than Shwe has refused to talk to Suu Kyi. Discussing why sanctions have been imposed on Myanmar would amount to a discussion of the NLD’s demands.
Most Western nations have demanded that Than Shwe release Suu Kyi and some 2,000 other political prisoners as a first step towards democratisation in the country, which has been under military rule since 1962. Suu Kyi and the NLD demand the same thing.
Last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told journalists on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York that the US administration had decided on a double-pronged approach of both engagement and continued sanctions.
“We believe that sanctions remain important as part of our policy, but by themselves, they have not produced the results that had been hoped for on behalf of the people of Burma,” Clinton said, referring to the South-East Asian country by its former name.
“Engagement versus sanctions is a false choice in our opinion,” she said.
Congress was due to be informed about details of the planned talks Thursday.
Washington has been calling on Myanmar’s military, which has ruled the country since 1962, to improve its human rights record, allow democratic reforms and release political prisoners, among them Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, ahead of a planned general election in 2010.
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