Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi met President Barack Obama at the White House on Wednesday on her first visit to the United States since her party won a sweeping victory in last year’s election, capping a decades-long journey from political prisoner to national leader.
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President Barack Obama made the remarks in a statement after meeting the leader of Myanmar’s civilian-led government, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in Washington.
The U.S. eased broad sanctions since Myanmar began political reforms five years ago, but kept in place targeted restrictions on military-owned companies and officials and associates of the former ruling junta. “And because, in part of advocacy by the United States and others in the worldwide community, but more importantly, because of the courage and strength and resilience of the Burmese people, what we’ve seen over the last several years is a transition to elections, a representative Legislature that still has significant constraints from the previous military government but is giving voice to the hopes and dreams of a new generation of Burmese people”.
The unmarked facade of the Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) headquarters – one of the country’s main military conglomerate under U.S. sanctions that runs business interests as diverse as construction, transport and brewing – is seen in Yangon on September 15, 2016.
Myanmar’s military stepped back from direct control of the country in 2011 after 49 years in power, but maintains a commanding role in politics, controlling 25 percent of seats in parliament and leading three key ministries. The U.S. had cited Myanmar’s refusal to recognize workers’ rights.
Some major United States brands have already jumped into the frontier economy, but many have stayed away saying the sanctions make investment too expensive and unsafe. There are no Western banks or U.S. airlines now operating in Myanmar, he said.
“Lifting all sanctions now will embolden the Myanmar military and its partners”, said Matthew Smith, chief executive at Fortify Rights.
“Obama and Suu Kyi just took important tools out of their collective tool kit for dealing with the Burmese military, and threw them into the garbage”, said John Sifton, deputy Washington director for Human Rights Watch. In November, when Suu Kyi was elected to her post, the USA removed certain government-run businesses and some banks from a blacklist in an attempt to jump-start trade.
Earnest said what substantively has changed is that the reason that this national emergency was placed into effect in the first place was concern about the undemocratic conduct of the military government that previously ruled Myanmar.
President Obama said the lifting of some sanctions would happen “soon”, but did not give further details.
Suu Kyi said it was time to remove remaining sanctions, which have kept US companies and banks leery of involvement in one of Asia’s last untapped markets.
Suu Kyi’s pronouncements will likely be enough to break United States congressional deadlock on sanctions legislation.
On other issues Suu Kyi has been criticized by some rights groups for not doing enough to address the plight of the Rohingya.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a nation of more than 50 million and rich in natural resources.
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At the same time, a number of business entities associated with Mr. Steven Law were belatedly added to the US Treasury’s list of Specially Designated Nationals.
