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Suu Kyi welcomes new US approach on Burma
Associated Press - September 25, 2009
Rangoon – Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi welcomes a US initiative to step up contacts with Burma's military government, a spokesman for her political party said Thursday.
Nyan Win, spokesman for the National League for Democracy party, said Suu Kyi agreed with plans announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Obama administration to engage in direct high-level talks with the junta as part of efforts to promote democracy in Burma.
Washington has for many years taken a hard-line approach toward the junta, applying political and economic sanctions while trying to keep it isolated.
Nyan Win spoke after he met Suu Kyi at her home, where she is serving her latest term of house arrest. He and other lawyers are involved in her appeal of her 18-month sentence for violating the terms of her previous house arrest by allowing an uninvited American visitor in May to stay for two days.
Suu Kyi "said she accepted the idea of engagement by the US administration. She said she has always espoused engagement, however, (she) suggested that engagement had to be done with both sides – the government as well as the democratic forces," Nyan Win said.
Clinton announced the new US approach Wednesday at the United Nations after meeting with counterparts from a number of countries that are trying to convince Burma's authoritarian regime to reform, allow dissent and release thousands of political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi.
Clinton said US sanctions against members of Burma's leadership would remain in place but that those measures would now be accompanied by outreach. For months, Clinton had lamented that the sanctions alone were having little impact.
"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 told reporters, using the country's traditional name.
"Engagement versus sanctions is a false choice in our opinion," she said. "So, going forward we will be employing both of those tools, pursuing our same goals."
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