US officials hold talks in Myanmar in policy shift

The Associated Press

YANGON, Myanmar — The United States began a new policy of engagement with Myanmar's ruling military junta on Tuesday, sending two senior diplomats for the highest-level visit in more than a decade.

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, and his deputy, Scot Marciel, held talks with junta officials and also were to meet detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, embassy spokesman Richard Mei said.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years.

The Obama administration has reversed the Bush administration's isolation of Myanmar in favor of direct, high-level talks with a country that has been ruled by the military since 1962.

"Mr. Campbell's visit is the beginning of a new U.S. engagement policy toward Myanmar. This is the first step of the engagement but we have to see what comes out of the new engagement policy," said Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.

Campbell is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Myanmar since a September 1995 trip by then-U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright.

The American diplomats flew Tuesday from neighboring Thailand to Myanmar's administrative capital of Naypyitaw in a U.S. Air Force plane, Mei said. He said Campbell was continuing talks he began in September in New York with senior Myanmar officials, which were the first such high-level contact in nearly a decade.

Evening news broadcasts on Myanmar's state television did not mention the two-day visit.

Myanmar government officials said Campbell would meet Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein early Wednesday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists, said Campbell held talks with several Cabinet ministers and other officials Tuesday.

Nyan Win said Campbell would meet with Suu Kyi in Yangon on Wednesday and then hold talks with other NLD leaders at the party headquarters.

Suu Kyi was recently sentenced to an additional 18 months of house arrest for briefly sheltering an uninvited American, in a trial that drew global condemnation. She is one of an estimated 2,100 detained political prisoners.

The United States has long imposed tough political and economic sanctions meant to force Myanmar's generals to respect human rights, release imprisoned political activists and make democratic reforms.

Washington has said it will maintain the sanctions until talks with Myanmar's generals result in change.

Campbell said last month if Myanmar doesn't address U.S. worries, "we will reserve the option of tightening sanctions on the regime and its supporters as appropriate."

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November 03, 2009 10:35 AM EST

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