Suu Kyi to Meet Campbell in Rangoon Hotel

The US delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell is scheduled to meet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at Rangoon’s Inya Lake Hotel on Wednesday morning.

The meeting was confirmed by an official with the US embassy in Rangoon. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity said the embassy had been responsible for arranging the meeting at the hotel.

A Burmese woman in Australia wears a badge of Aung San Suu Kyi to show her support for the release of the pro-democracy leader on October 27. (Photo: Getty Images)

Following the meeting with Suu Kyi, Campbell will hold talks with opposition and ethnic leaders, the official said.

Campbell will hold a press conference on Wednesday at Rangoon International Airport before leaving Burma, the official announced. The State Department official will also report to the press on his Tuesday talks with senior regime officials in Naypyidaw.

Journalists in Rangoon report that Burma’s Ministry of Information is allowing photographers access to the US delegation and Suu Kyi when they meet on Wednesday.

“We are permitted by the authorities to take photos of the meeting between the US officials and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but only a photo opportunity,” said one Rangoon journalist. “The authorities told us ‘no questions’.”

Ahead of Campbell’s trip to Burma, Suu Kyi told her lawyer last week that she is “keenly monitoring” the State Department officials’ two-day visit to Burma.

Some observers remain skeptical about the visit and its chances of success. “We are not that excited,” said a senior Rangoon correspondent, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We have seen this kind of cosmetic [by the junta] in the past.”

“The real question is whether they [the military regime] have genuine political will,” the journalist said. “People have given them the benefit of a doubt, but whatever they do we treat it with a pinch of salt.”

A week before Campbell’s visit, the junta arrested more a dozen relief workers who helped Cyclone Nargis victims, including eight journalists, according to human rights groups.

Campbell’s visit follows the launch of a new Burma policy by the Obama administration in Washington. US officials led by Campbell met with a Burmese delegation headed by U Thaung, the Minister of Science and Technology who is a former Burmese ambassador to the US, in New York on Sept. 29.

On Oct. 9, the Burmese junta acceded to a request by Suu Kyi for a meeting with diplomats from the US, Britain and Australia to talk about the effectiveness of sanctions.

The meeting prompted speculation that Suu Kyi had shifted her stance on sanctions.

“I think most outside observers are misjudging Suu Kyi’s stance,” said Bertil Lintner, a Swedish journalist who is author of many books on Burma. “She has not changed her minds about sanctions as such. Sanctions are not an end in themselves but they are there to achieve a goal.”     

Lintner told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that if the regime is not willing to compromise, then, of course, she would like to see sanctions remain in force until those goals are met.

“By making that statement, Suu Kyi has once again become an active player in the Burmese imbroglio,” he added. “Now, no one can ignore her. She has showed that she is flexible and reasonable.”

Along with the US efforts for democratization in Burma, a key issue in US-Burma relations is cooperation in the fight to defeat the drug trade.

“There are a number of areas in which we might be able improve cooperation to our mutual benefit, such as counter-narcotics, health, environmental protection, and the recovery of the remains of World War II-era missing Americans,” Campbell told the US Congress on Oct.21.

Shortly before Campbell’s arrival in Burma, Prime Minter Gen Thein Sein travelled to the Kokang town of Laogai in northeastern Burma on Saturday to attend the incineration of seized narcotic drugs and precursor chemicals.

“This is a kind of signal by the junta to the US,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw, a former communist fighter who observes the Burma situation from China’s Yunnan Province.      “But an open secret here is that the ruling generals have been involved in and ignored drug trading in the country for at least two decades,”