The United States would “soon” lift its sanctions against Myanmar, the US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday but stopped short of giving a time frame for this.
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During a visit Wednesday with Myanmar’s leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, President Obama announced he would “soon” be lifting economic sanctions imposed against the country decades ago.
The trip by Suu Kyi, who like Obama is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, capped a decades-long journey from political prisoner to national leader after her party won a sweeping electoral victory previous year.
He made the announcement after meeting with Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the Oval Office, a symbolic image of his moves toward repairing broken USA relationships across the globe.
Nevertheless, behind the scenes, Suu Kyi may still be advocating for making the removal of the last vestiges of the USA sanctions regime conditional on the military’s willingness to reform the 2008 constitution, which gives the army control of several key ministries and one quarter of the seats in parliament.
The move prompted the U.S.to cut off economic aid and military assistance to Myanmar and downgrade diplomatic relations.
“Hopefully the military continues to loosen its grip”, Gardner said.
The removal of executive sanctions will additionally end the US State Department’s reporting requirements for prospective American investors, along with the longstanding ban on US importation of jade and rubies from Myanmar.
Mr Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said: “The Burmese government doesn’t deserve a wide-scale lifting of sanctions”. She has taken on marquee issues that are fiendishly complicated and may take years to resolve, such as ethnic conflict and minority rights, rather than more urgent humanitarian or economic matters.
The United States President Barack Obama finally said “it’s the right thing to do” for Myanmar. We have a constitution which is not entirely democratic because it gives the military a special place in politics.
Suu Kyi, who will also be meeting with lawmakers, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry, last visited Washington in 2012 when she was still opposition leader. And as a effect, now Aung San Suu Kyi, as State Counselor, Foreign Minister, is in a position with her government to begin shaping a remarkable social and political transformation and economic transformation there.
Kathleen Newland, co-founder of the Migration Policy Institute, said the large numbers from Myanmar and Congo are to some degree vestiges of US policy after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when lawmakers halted refugees from countries with links to terrorist groups such as al-Qaida. No longer is Aung San Suu Kyi a prisoner in her own house, she’s now the head of the government. “We think our country is ready to take off”.
“She has to tackle problems one by one”, said Ben Rhodes, a key Obama aide who has spearheaded the administration’s Myanmar policy.
“While incremental progress is being made in Burma, it is vital that the USA continue to act in support of Burma’s people, particularly those still suffering under the current government”, the letter said.
The treatment of Rohingya Muslims also “remains the great great sticking point internationally for Myanmar”, Schrank said, noting that Aung San Suu Kyi has “put her name on an initiative to resolve a lot of these problems, including the problem with the Rohingya”.
That event perhaps typifies the widening gulf between Suu Kyi and rights activists who championed her cause when she was under house arrest.
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“If anything, we’re enhancing it”, Earnest said, adding that greater USA engagement would increase its ability to promote further changes in Myanmar.
