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Suu Kyi ‘Keenly Monitoring’ Campbell Visit

By WAI MOE AND KO HTWE Thursday, October 29, 2009
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Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said that she is keenly monitoring the planned visit to Burma of a US delegation to be led by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell, according to a lawyer who met with Suu Kyi on Thursday. 

“She told us during the meeting today that she is keenly monitoring Mr Campbell’s upcoming visit and is interested in when he will come and what he will do in Burma,” Nyan Win, Suu Kyi’s lawyer, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.
 
Campbell said last week that a US delegation will visit Burma in the coming weeks. The US State Department announced that Campbell will lead the delegation, which intends to open a new round of talks with Burma’s military leaders.
 
However, Suu Kyi did not make further comment on Campbell’s trip, Nyan Win said.

Nyan Win and another lawyer, Kyi Wynn, were permitted by Burmese authorities to meet Suu Kyi for about 90 minutes on Thursday afternoon. Nyan Win said Suu Kyi discussed the appeal pending over her current term of house arrest.

Campbell is expected to meet with Suu Kyi, ethnic leaders and government officials, including U Thaung, the minister of science and technology and former Burmese ambassador to Washington who met with the assistant US foreign secretary in September in New York.

However, whether Campbell will meet with Burma’s military chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe is still unclear as Than Shwe is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka in November.

After a Burma policy review, the US State Department announced in September that the US will have direct engagement with the Burmese junta while US sanctions on Burma will be maintained. 

Suu Kyi met with a US representative in Rangoon earlier this month to talk about the impact of US sanctions on the Burmese regime and the country at large. 

Thursdays’ was the first meeting between Suu Kyi and her lawyers since Oct. 16. Rangoon Northern District Court rejected on Oct. 2 Suu Kyi’s appeal against an 18-month extension of her house arrest on charges related to the intrusion of an American man onto her property. 



COMMENTS (6)
 
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KKK Wrote:
30/10/2009
Will Mr. Campbell save Burma-born US citizen Kyaw Zaw Lwin on his second trip?
What do you want, Mr. Campbell?




Tide Wrote:
30/10/2009
Ha, does it mean that she was not keen to care about visits made by UN envoys?

I wonder why she wants to change her position of being opposition figure to a watchdog figure? Monitoring Campbell's visit is obviously a watchdog's job, and she wants to do this job?

Ko Chin Wrote:
30/10/2009
Daw Suu is being monitored by the US instead of her monitoring the US no matter who would it is, Campbell or otherwise from the US administration, as she has been on the payroll of the West for such long years.

Kyi May Kaung Wrote:
30/10/2009
Again I would like to repeat my warning that everyone, including the US, has to be very careful at this time. Even as it appears to be "softening," the junta is arresting NGO workers and NGOs will have to cease activity during the 2010 election and other restrictions are being put on.

Tomorrow there's a big seminar in Washington DC featuring people who want sanctions lifted. I don't think much will come of this, just people scrambling to have a role in what they think will be the opening of Burma.

Read Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild, about how the Congo became the private empire of King Leopold and how a private corporation he formed ran slave labor camps that forced people into portering and tapping wild rubber by kidnapping the women as hostages. Cutting off hands and heads were the norm.

It will break your heart, the way Burma breaks your heart now.

timothy Wrote:
30/10/2009
The American delegation must meet the opposition and ethnic leaders and ask their opinion about the future politics of Burma.

The Panglong agreement of 1947 is the main lifeline for a peaceful and coherent Burma. The Americans should understand the important fact about Union history.

The junta should only use one third of its time to see the American delegation. The Americans should draw the agenda of the programs and meetings so that the junta will not have any chance to manipulate the process.

Ban Ki-moon had surrendered to Than Shwe and none of us was surprised when Than Shwe mistreated Ban Ki-moon. He deserved it. If Than Shwe does not listen to American rule, he must be shot down by the CIA. American imperialism is here to use when you deal with murderous Than Shwe.

Okkar Wrote:
29/10/2009
How can she monitor anything under house arrest? If she can monitor Campbell's visit, she can certainly find out about the sanctions also.

This just goes to show that NLD and opposition supporters play this "poor woman under house arrest, cut off from the world" card whenever it suits their propaganda.

The reality is that Suu Kyi is very much in touch with the current issues and she know full well how much sanctions are hurting the people of Myanmar, yet despite knowing all this she refuse to make amends. This shows how much she cares about the people of Myanmar.





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