home

'Hopeful' Hillary Clinton starts Burma visit (30 November 2011)

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Burma on the first visit by such a senior American diplomat in 50 years.

Mrs Clinton says she is "quite hopeful" that reforms undertaken by the government could lead to a broader "movement for change".

She is due to meet Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein on her two-day visit.

No US politician of her seniority has visited since an army takeover in 1962.

Burma has been largely isolated since then, under an autocratic and unpredictable military regime.

The military oversaw elections last year that transferred power to a military-backed, nominally civilian government.

But the new government under Thein Sein - a former general - has undertaken some steps towards reform.

'Flickers of progress'

Mrs Clinton landed in the remote capital, Nay Pyi Daw, on Wednesday afternoon. She will meet top officials on Thursday before heading to Rangoon to meet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Earlier, she told reporters in South Korea that she wanted to see for herself how committed the government was to change.

"We and many other nations are quite hopeful that these flickers of progress... will be ignited into a movement for change that will benefit the people of the country," she said.

The government has made efforts to reform election laws and rules banning protests. It has also released some political prisoners.

The changes have been rewarded by regional group Asean, which has agreed to allow Burma to take the chairmanship of the bloc in 2014.

And Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy has re-registered as a political party.

The NLD had operated outside the political system for two decades, and Ms Suu Kyi spent much of that time in detention.

It boycotted the polls last year because of laws that prevented Ms Suu Kyi and other senior pro-democracy leaders from running.

These laws have now been changed and the party says it will field candidates in a forthcoming by-election for seats in parliament left empty by the appointment of ministers.

However, critics say that the country still holds hundreds more political prisoners, and that fierce fighting is continuing between government troops and ethnic insurgents in several states.

REFORM IN BURMA

7 Nov 2010: First polls in 20 years
13 Nov: Aung San Suu Kyi freed from house arrest
30 Mar 2011: Transfer of power to new government complete
14 Aug: Aung San Suu Kyi allowed to leave Rangoon on political visit
19 Aug: Aung San Suu Kyi meets Burmese President Thein Sein
6 Oct: Human rights commission established
12 Oct: More than 200 political prisoners freed
13 Oct: New labour laws allowing unions passed
17 Nov: Burma granted Asean chair in 2014
18 Nov: NLD says it is rejoining political process

Has power transfer changed Burma?

BBC

DEMOCRACY icon Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party today applied to re-register, beginning its formal return to mainstream politics in Burma and paving the way for her to run in elections.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) announced a week ago it would sign up as a party again - after boycotting last year's parliamentary poll - amid signs of reform in a country long dominated by the military.

Party officials have indicated that the 66-year-old Suu Kyi herself is likely to stand in upcoming byelections, where 48 seats will be up for grabs, though no date has yet been set for a vote.

NLD filed papers at the national electoral commission in Nay Pyi Taw, north of Rangoon, this morning and the government is expected to take at least a week to approve the application.

After decades of outright military rule, a much-criticised election in November last year - Burma's first in 20 years - brought a nominally civilian government to power, albeit one dominated by the army and its proxies.

The new administration has surprised many observers with a series of reformist moves, including holding talks with Suu Kyi, passing a law giving workers the right to strike and releasing hundreds of political prisoners.

The NLD boycotted last year's election mainly because of rules that would have forced it to expel imprisoned members. Suu Kyi was under house arrest at the time.

The party's decision last Friday to end its boycott came on the same day the military-dominated government received a dramatic seal of approval from the United States for its nascent reforms.

After speaking directly to Nobel laureate Suu Kyi for the first time, President Barack Obama said Hillary Clinton would visit Burma next week - the first US secretary of state to do so in 50 years.

Mr Obama said Ms Clinton's trip was designed to stoke "flickers" of democratic reform in a country that for decades has been blighted by military rule and international isolation.

Shortly after, UN chief Ban Ki-moon announced that he too would visit Burma "as soon as possible."

In another diplomatic coup last week, Rangoon also won approval from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to chair the 10-nation bloc in 2014.

The NLD won a landslide victory in polls in 1990 but the then-ruling junta never allowed the party to take power. Suu Kyi, although a figurehead for the campaign, was under house arrest at the time.

Burma President Thein Sein - a former general - told a small group of Burmese journalists in Indonesia on Saturday that he was happy about the NLD's plans to re-enter mainstream politics and would welcome Suu Kyi to parliament.

Analysts say the return of the NLD will add to the legitimacy of the army-backed government, which is seeking to end its global isolation - but would also increase the relevance of the popular but long-excluded Suu Kyi.

After spending 15 of the past 22 years in detention, Suu Kyi told her party last week that they should contest all the seats available in the by-elections. Herald Sun

'Hopeful' Hillary Clinton starts Burma visit (30 November 2011)

Suu Kyi's opposition party registers on path to election (25 November 2011)