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Burma hopes reforms will yield image makeover
Agence France Presse - November 13, 2011
The nominally civilian administration will make an important foray on the global scene this week on the Indonesian island of Bali, eight months after it replaced a long-ruling military junta.
Since then, it has drawn widespread attention with a series of moves including towards opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar's President Thein Sein will meet leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, held in conjunction with the East Asia Summit, where Barack Obama will be the first US president to take a full seat alongside major powers China and Japan.
The summit comes as the international community closely watches the new government, which has surprised critics by holding direct talks with Suu Kyi and freezing work on an unpopular mega-dam in the north.
Myanmar officials said on Sunday that a new prisoner amnesty would be declared on Monday, including political detainees, after a mass release last month disappointed observers by freeing only about 200 dissidents, leaving many key figures behind bars.
And last week, a senior UN official and two US diplomats visited the capital Naypyidaw, followed by the Bangkok-based European Union ambassador.
"It is normal for countries interested in what is happening in Myanmar to want to go and confirm with their own eyes and ears what is going on," said Trevor Wilson, a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar.
But Myanmar's new rulers should not necessarily expect accolades in Bali. "Nobody is giving them any presents or rewards for what they're doing, it's more a question of getting a clearer understanding of what is happening and deciding whether or not some kind of policy adjustments would be appropriate," Wilson said.
Myanmar has routinely overshadowed Asean summits. It joined in 1997 but has been a constant source of embarrassment to the organization, with its human rights record and reluctance to shift towards democracy condemned by the West.
In 2006, Myanmar was forced to renounce the bloc's rotating presidency, but it now wants to chair Asean in 2014. That would imply agreement from all members of the bloc to be hosted by the new nominally civilian regime, including the United States in the East Asia Summit, despite Washington's hard line and sanctions.
"We didn't take the chairmanship when we were not ready, but now we are ready to take it and the political situation in the country is also good," said a Myanmar official on condition of anonymity. "That possibility is there at the summit for the Asean chairmanship."
Myanmar knows it can count on the support of the bloc's current chair, Indonesia. "We feel more positive about it because I have seen this trajectory of positive developments," Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said recently.
Bali will not be the first time that Thein Sein represents Myanmar internationally. As prime minister, before being sworn in as president last March, he was recognized as the international face of the former junta.
But this week he will appear as the head of state, claiming significant reforms even if his future is still not assured, given the risk of a backlash by hardliners back home who may not share his apparent enthusiasm for change.
For a few hours the former general will be in the same building as US President Obama, but the indications are that it is still too soon for any high-level meeting with the United States.
"We're continuing to evaluate some of this progress that we've seen but also to talk very clearly to the Burmese about further progress that is required," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
Naypyidaw cannot yet hope for a lifting of US and EU sanctions, at least not before the release of all political prisoners – whose number is unclear.
Before last month's amnesty, human rights groups and observers believed the country had roughly 2,000 political detainees, but the government's human rights panel and the main opposition party put the figure at around 300 and 500 respectively on Sunday.
But even with hundreds of prisoners of conscience still locked up, there is room for better ties with Washington. "Should the government pursue genuine and lasting reform for the benefits of its citizens, it will find a partner in the United States," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday.
Wilson said that improved relations could see United States aid funneled into the desperately poor country via non-governmental organizations. "It could be very significant amounts," he said.
"There would be less political objections to that in the US Congress, which is going to be the last to recognize that things have actually changed and the US policy should change."
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